When Jack Met Sally
by ice-storm1196
Summary: What happened before "Nightmare"? I just thought that their friendship wasn't anywhere near fleshed out enough. Find out how they met and possibly some other adventures they had before getting together at the end of "Nightmare."
1. Chapter 1

When Jack Met Sally

~Because their friendship wasn't developed enough in the movie~

Jack Skellington first met Sally the Ragdoll almost thirty years after he became the Pumpkin King and unofficial leader of Halloweentown. He was in the graveyard near the Spiral Hill, when a flash of red caught his eye. Bright colors were not something that you saw every day in a place like Halloweentown, so he immediately took notice. He saw her a little ways off, coming from the vague direction of Finklestein's castle, ducking behind random bushes and hiding behind the rare sparse tree. She was actually quite good at sneaking about, noted Jack, with a professional's eye. Nowhere near as good as he, of course, but then again, he was the Pumpkin King. He watched her in this fashion for almost ten minutes before she made it down the long hill and over the wall, effectively hiding her from anyone who might be watching up at Finklestien's. She paused a moment, then grinned and did a little victory dance. Jack paused, trying to come up with a word for the action. It eluded him for a moment, then he happened upon it—it was adorable. This was a rarity, someone definitely worth watching. He had no doubt that she was new in town (which was rare in and of itself) but she was bright and…he couldn't think of another word yet, he'd have to find some synonyms—adorable. It wouldn't last, he was sure, Halloweentown had a way of bleaching and shadowing things; nothing stayed bright and innocent for long. But while it lasted, maybe even beyond, Jack felt himself compelled to know her.

The girl in question started, interestingly, not for the town, but the cemetery. Jack slipped off the gravestone he was crouched on much like a vulture, and hid in the shadow as she cautiously opened the gate. She stopped just inside, glanced around, and, not seeing anybody, grinned again. She held her arms out from her body, almost level with the shoulders, palms up, and spun in a slow circle. She laughed then, an odd sound. A bit like bells, thought Jack in surprise. Oh well, if it wasn't a nice sound like a creaky gate or a crackling fire or something, at least it was interesting. The girl then began moving through the graves, twirling every now and again, breathing deeply, and sometimes laughing a little. She flitted, almost dancing, closer and closer to Jack's hiding place. He found himself shrinking back, further into the shadows, not wanting her to see him and stop. He began following her, sliding from shadow to shadow nigh invisibly. He didn't want to scare her, not yet, he wanted to keep watching, to see what she would do. But his desire to know her, know her name, where she came from, really anything, soon overcame his desire to stalk her anymore. He moved faster now, still hiding, and soon was behind a gravestone almost directly in front of her. He pulled himself on top of the grave stone and watched for another moment. He was about to leap in front of her, when she turned around again. He slid down the stone, and, instead of screaming at her or getting right in her face when she turned around (though he considered both) leaned against the headstone comfortably, stretching out his long legs. She could hardly miss him, and, he thought, it might even be scarier to turn around and see someone just standing there watching you when you knew very well they hadn't been there a second ago. What he didn't expect is that the girl would take a few steps backwards before turning around. The result was, as she turned, she got caught on his legs and tripped, one of her legs tearing off entirely.

"Oh!" said Jack folding himself in and leaning close, wanting to help. "I am sorry, I didn't mean to trip you! Are you quite alright?"

"Oh, you mean the leg, It's fine, it doesn't hurt, it happens all…the…time…" For she had looked up and seen his face, and it was clear from her expression she knew who he was. "You…you're the Pumpkin King!" she exclaimed. Jack gave a deep bow—not easy to do when crouched, and he very nearly fell over.

"Please, call me Jack," he replied. She nodded.

"OK…Jack," she wasn't looking at him now, instead she was intent on sewing up her leg.

"You know me," he said, "But I do not yet have the pleasure of knowing your name my dear." He may have sounded a bit patronizing, but let's hope he didn't mean it. In any case, she didn't take it as such, but instead gasped and apologized.

"Right! Sorry! My name is Sally." She offered a slight grin, and tucked the needle she had used to sew her leg back on behind her ear. "I should have said right away…" she trailed off, hoping he wasn't angry. He helped her to her feet, quite gallantly he thought, and waved a bony hand in the air.

"Nothing of it, you were distracted. So tell me, Sally," he glanced at her as if ensuring this was indeed her name, and, satisfied that it was, continued; "Where are you from? I haven't seen you around before, though it appears you have seen me." If it were possible, Sally would have blushed.

"It's just…" she glanced at Finklestien's castle. Would he be disgusted if he knew?...

Jack followed her eyes. "Ah! Finklestien! So, he's finally created something that works! Took him long enough." She looked at him shyly.

"It just gets so close in there," she said quietly. "I just needed…some air." Jack glanced at her appraisingly.

"He doesn't like you to leave does he?" Sally froze. Would he turn her in? Hand her back over? Punish her in some other way? "It's alright, I understand." He grinned and put a bony finger up to his mouth. "I won't say anything if you don't." She was surprised, he was offering to help her defy her creator? He seemed to read her mind, again. "I never much liked him anyway, he almost never shares his talents with the rest of us, and certain things would be much easier if he did." Sally didn't ask what these "certain things" were, and he didn't offer any examples.

"What are you…"she stopped, then deciding she was in too deep to stop, continued; "What are you doing out here? I thought you'd have some sort of planning meeting or something going on." She was apprehensive, what if he'd thought her too foreword? But she didn't take it back or tell him he didn't have to answer if he didn't want to. He knew that already, he was the Pumpkin King. If he didn't want to answer it he wouldn't, he didn't need her permission to refuse to reply. She was more worried that he might get angry that she'd asked him such a personal question when they hadn't even known each other five minutes. But to her surprise, and to his, he just shrugged.

"It's quiet here, I just like to get away from it all sometimes." He glanced around. "Though sometimes the Mayor is quite inconsolable if I am gone too long." He grinned. "It's very funny, do you want to see?" She paused.

"I…I'd like to, but I probably shouldn't. If the doctor ever found out…" Jack nodded.

"Yes, he might get angry. But he wouldn't hurt you."

"How do you know? He is always threatening to take me apart. He is napping now, which is why I knew I could get away a while, he usually naps about two hours." Jack nodded. He was aware of this habit of the Doctor's. He had taken advantage of it once or twice when the Doctor had something he needed (this was before the time when all Jack had to do was ask and anything he wanted would be done, even by Finklestien).

"Well, if you ever want to get out again, use some Deadly Nightshade," he suggested. He grabbed a bunch of the plant from it's rather convenient location at the foot of the gravestone in front of which they stood. She gave him a smile, the first real smile she'd given him, and it gave him a little thrill. He'd seen it before of course, but this time it was directed right at him, and there wasn't a hint of awe or fear or jealousy in her eyes.

"That's brilliant!" she said, happily pocketing the plant. "I cook all his meals for him, it will be easy to slip some in his soup." She paused, then asked, "Does anyone else know that you come here?" Jack hesitated before replying.

"I think, actually, that Finklestien does know, though he's never said anything. If he like Oogie at all, he might even use it against me, but nobody really likes Oogie…"he trailed off. "He spies a lot from that castle of his. I think he's seen me come in here from time to time, he has a pretty good view of the front entrance from his castle, and my house isn't far." Sally looked nervous. "But hey, remember? I said I wouldn't say anything, and I won't. Even if he does come here, which he doesn't like to do, he has to stay in that chair more and more now, and it isn't and easy place to get to in a wheel chair, we'll see him before he sees us." That is when they heard a terrible cry.

"!" it screamed. Her eyes went even wider than they already were, and they saw the dark figure of Finklestien emerge from his castle and start barreling down the hill.

'He must really like you," commented Jack.

"He doesn't like to be apart," agreed Sally. "Will he come here?"

"If he saw me come in, he might. He'll want to know if I saw you coming down the hill, I've been here a while."

"Did you see me coming down the hill?" Jack nodded.

"You are kind of hard to miss." For the second time in less than fifteen minutes, Sally knew that had she any blood, she'd be red in the face as well as red in the hair. She ducked behind a smaller headstone as Finklestien arrived at the front gate and started laboriously inching his chair up the hill. Sally was hidden by brush and graves, and she fervently hoped that nothing was sticking out. She didn't move. Finkllestien looked up and saw Jack lounging against the gravestone, staring at him.

"I don't suppose," he wheezed, "you'd help me out?"

"I don't suppose you'd ask nicely?" shot back Jack. Finklestien growled and said nothing. It was almost five minutes before he sat, panting in front of Jack.

"I am looking for a girl," he finally gasped out.

"Aren't we all?" returned Jack breezily. Finklestien glared.

"I think you've seen her."

"Oh really? And why do you think that?"

"Because Skellington, she'd have to come this way and you would have seen her coming down the hill!" he snapped. Jack paused as if thinking. If she'd had a heart, Sally knew it would have stopped.

"You don't mean Gertrude?" gasped Jack, apparently horrified. "Really, I mean, I always thought…but I didn't think you'd actually….Oh! That is NOT something I wanted to know!" After this little speech, both of them were sputtering a bit, Finklestien with impalpable rage and Jack was clearly, at least to Sally, trying not to laugh, but to Finklestien it must have looked like it was in disgust.

"NO! NOT GERTRUDE!" he said the name with as much distain as he could, because, to tell the truth, he had liked the youngest witch for quite some time, but he was quite horrified that Jack had noticed. He still harbored a boyish thought that, if he liked a girl, the best way to go about it was to pretend to hate her and think her disgusting. He didn't know that Jack hadn't actually thought he liked Gertrude up until that very moment, the horror in his voice Jack correctly interpreted as fear that Jack had found him out, not in the choice of lady. Which made it all the harder for Jack not to burst out laughing, he had just blurted the first name that came to mind, and Gertrude was such the opposite of Sally that she had seemed perfect. "I am looking for a creation of mine. A rag doll girl named Sally. She is yet unfinished and yet is always trying to run away and this time she has succeeded!"

"You actually made something…alive? And it worked? Well, good for you!" cried Jack jovially, as if he wasn't hearing it for the first time. "What does she look like?"

"Don't pretend you don't know!" Jack gave him a rather terrifying little grin.

"Not pretending. Now, I am in a good mood right now Finklestien," he pronounced the name as if it were something dirty or disgusting, like the color pink or a rainbow. Finklestein immediately sensed it, and the hairs on the back of his neck went up and he began to get nervous. "But if you insist of vexing me and insinuating things, and coming very close to insulting me," here Jack's voice went into a low, threatening whisper, and Sally could see why he was the Pumpkin King and not just a random citizen, "then I will be forced to act. I don't want to hurt you," this louder, "but I can. And, if you push me further, I might not be able to help myself." Finklestien growled, he was rather afraid, but refusing to show it.

"Is that a threat?"

"Or a fact, as you like," replied Jack offhandedly. "Either way, it is not a good idea to test my patience. Leave now or I will push you down the hill." Finklestein, muttering darkly, turned his chair around and started moving slowly down the hill. He had no doubts that Jack would push him down as promised. Jack didn't bluff. "Good luck finding her!" Came Jack's call after him. Finklestien reached the gate, and with a black look up at the waving Jack, pushed it open and started rolling toward town.

Sally came out of her hiding place. "Would you believe that he likes _Gertrude_?" asked Jack incredulously. "I never would have guessed. Though I guess it is good to know…"

"Would you really have pushed him down the hill Jack?" asked Sally anxiously.

"Yes. If he annoyed me enough, or insulted me. Or if he came close to finding you. I did promise." She nodded, but bit her lip, and looked a bit concerned. "It wouldn't have hurt him Sally," Jack said gently. "It just would have gotten him out of here faster. He has good control of that chair, and there aren't many bumps on the path. He might fall out, but even then, all that would be bruised would be his dignity." She glanced at him, still staring intently at her. "I don't hurt people Sally," he said. "Just scare them is all. The only person who really hurts people is Oogie Boogie. But we can talk about him another time. For now, I think it's best if you go home, and pretend that you were there the whole time and he can't have looked properly. You can usually find me in town, but check here first. Come see me again Sally," he grinned. She smiled too, and promised that she would.

And thus the friendship of Jack and Sally began.

AN: Is it any good? I just thought that the movie didn't really have enough of their friendship and that the romance was kind of (read entirely) out of the blue. The time period of this is quite a while before the actual story "Nightmare Before Christmas," and I just wanted to flesh out their relationship a bit more. It will probably stay a one shot unless people review it and want me to continue. If you ask me too, I will quiet enjoy writing more Jack and Sally stuff, and I want to see where this takes me anyway, through friendship into a romance that neither knows is reciprocated. If people are OOC, tell me, but keep in mind that Jack at this point hasn't been Pumpkin King for too long, and Oogie hasn't even been banished yet. I wouldn't be surprised it "Nightmare" was still a hundred years off. Especially the way Jack was talking. Please review or critique or flame. And let me know if I should continue (feel free to give plot ideas too)


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks to Bipolar Visionary, Saphire-lady, and BJXCBFOREVER for reviewing!

Also, to everyone who reads this, feel free to leave ideas for the story in a review. It was originally going to be a one shot, but certain people (aka the above reviewers) convinced me to keep going. I know what the next two chapters are going, but I am pretty open after that…

Sally waited until the door to the lab slammed shut before making her escape. She had considered using the Deadly Nightshade, but she didn't know exactly what it would do, and she hadn't been able to sneak out and ask Jack about it. Finklestien hadn't believed her claims that she hadn't snuck out, and had been watching her like a hawk for the past week. But she hadn't tried anything all week, and had been as obedient as Igor, the foolish little man Finklestien had made before her. She was glad she hadn't turned out like Igor. She at least, had been given a full brain. Probably, she knew, because Finklestien had wanted someone to talk to, not just a lackey, as well as something pleasant to look at while he did it. Unfortunately, Sally wasn't that interested in Science. But she knew that when he went into the lab, Finkliestien wouldn't come out for hours. She figured she might even have all day to spend with Jack, and maybe he could even show her around the town!

As a matter of fact, Jack had been sneaking off to the graveyard everyday for the past week for a few minutes at least, hoping she'd come back. That particular day he was just leaving, disappointed again, but just as he pushed open the gate, caught a reflection of red. He felt a grin spread across his face, and he turned to watch Sally slipping down the hill. She went out of sight briefly as she slid through the back gate and tiptoed through the graveyard. As she rounded a large stone, she thought she caught a glimpse of something by the front gate. She hurried down the hill and to the gate. Nothing was there. She pushed through a gap in the bars and looked up and down the wall. Nothing. She could have sworn she'd seen something…

"!" shrieked an unearthly noise, right behind her. Sally gave a loud scream herself and stumbled backwards, and was faced with Jack's skeletal, and now laughing face. "Eheeheeheeheeheeheeee!" He was practically bent over from laughing. "Oooh, your face!" he gasped. "Oh, I enjoyed that." Sally put a hand to her still chest. She knew that she didn't have anything other than a small stuffed heart, but she still somehow felt it beating at a million miles a minute.

"That…that was scary," gasped Sally.

"Of course!" said Jack, a little astonished at her surprised tone. "I am the King of Halloween. It's how I get my kicks. And everyone in town is the same. Just not as good as me," he added on afterthought. Sally began to grin. After the initial shock wore off, she had actually quite enjoyed it. "There you go!" cried Jack, seeing her grin. "OK, just be prepared for more of the same in town alright? And some of the citizens aren't all that scary, but if I tap your arm like so," he demonstrated, a light tap on her arm with his bony finger, "I want you to look scared OK?" She nodded. "By the way, did you use the Nightshade? I noticed you were kind of sneaking again." Sally shook her head.

"I was a little afraid. Would it really hurt him? Or kill him?"

"Sally, he's dead. All it'll do is knock him out for a few hours. Don't believe me? We'll stop by the witches house. They can tell you about certain plants and things." They were walking now, towards the town. Sally had to practically run to keep up with Jack's long strides.

The second Jack pushed open the gate to the town, he was accosted by a small man in a pointed hat and black suit. His face was grey and distressed, and a small button on his coat read 'Mayor.'

"Jack!" he cried, "Why must you do this? We have so much to PLAN! You know I can't do it on my own! I'm just an elected official! Come, come come!" he was walking backwards now, practically hopping with impatience.

"Calm down Mayor, I have been planning. I have lots of ideas of how to make this the best Halloween ever! I'm sure your plans are fine."

"Jack!" whined the Mayor, stretching the syllable out to last a good deal longer than it should be held. "Pleeaaaaase!" Here the Mayor waved a bunch of rolled up paper so energetically that he fell over backwards. Jack covered a laugh in a cough, and plucked the papers out of the Mayor's flailing arms. He looked a bit like a crab that has landed on its back. Jack stepped over him and kept going, but Sally paused, and then, after looking at the prostate Mayor a moment, bent and helped him up. "Thank you!" moaned the unfortunate Mayor. "My, what is your name?"

"I'm…"

"Sally! Are you coming or not?" Jack strode back. "I thought you wanted to meet the witches." Sally gave a jump as the Mayor's face suddenly twisted from grey and anguished to happy and bright.

"Jack! This nice young lady just helped me up! Where ever did you find her?"

"Oh, just around," demurred Jack.

"I am staying with Dr. Finklestien," offered Sally. Jack tossed her a surprised look.

"Ah," said the Mayor. "I guess I'll only see you when you can sneak out then hmm? I know he keeps his guests close to home." Sally offered him a small grin. "Jack, I will be back at eight o'clock to discuss these plans!" said the Mayor abruptly. "We really must get going, there is only a month left till Halloween!" He looked worried again, but didn't switch his face. Jack sighed. In his mind he rolled his eyes. Of course, it is quite difficult to convey rolling eyes with only empty eye sockets, so he compensated by saying, in as exasperated a tone as he could manage, "I _know_. You've been reminding me daily they exact count of days, minutes and seconds left till Halloween. Believe it or not Mayor, but I do know what I am doing." The Mayor gulped.

"Sorry Jack, right. Right. I'll see you at eight." The Mayor wandered off.

"Did you have to be so mean?" asked Sally. Jack sighed.

"Probably not. But he doesn't need to keep reminding me. That's what the clock is for," he said, gesturing to the large clock which, along with the time of day, had, underneath, a sign that proclaimed "30 days till Halloween" in big letters.

"Ah," said Sally. "Still, he is just worried. You could be a little nicer." Jack gave a shrug.

"Sure. Hello Harlequin," he said to a small devil creature scurrying past.

"Hello, Jack. And you is your delightful young companion?" asked the devil, stopping and giving a polite little bow.

"Sally, this is Harlequin. Harlequin, this is Sally. She's staying with Finklestein." Harlequin gave Sally a sly grin.

"I hope you enjoy our Town. I have some additional ideas for Halloween Jack," he said.

"Eight o'clock the Mayor is coming by to discuss plans. Feel free to drop by." The little devil bowed, and hurried off.

They hadn't walked much farther when they came upon a small house in the shape of a pointed hat.

"I guess we've gotten to the witch's house," remarked Sally. Jack gave a small chuckle.

"Yes, not subtle at all are they?" He gave the door bell a push.

_Double, double toil and trouble_

_ Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble_

_ Double, double toil and trouble_

_ Someone's at the door_

Sally blinked. Jack shook his head. "I keep telling them to change it. Mine's just a nice scream. But they like the theatrical…"he trailed off as a rather tall witch answered the door.

"Jack!" she said delightedly.

"Hello Gertrude!" said Jack, jovially. Sally had a feeling that Jack was still amused by Finklestien's infatuation with the witch, and his happy tone was concealing his desire to laugh out loud whenever he saw her.

"In a good mood again today Jack? You've been happy to see me all week." She blinked, and batted her eyes. "If I didn't know better, I'd think you had a little crush Jack," she giggled, more of a cackle really, but it was her version of a giggle all the same.

"Now, Gertrude," said Jack, and had to stop, because apparently trying not to gag at the thought of him being with Gertrude and at the same time not laugh at the look he imagined on Finklestien's face if such a thingever came to fruition was a thing much harder actually done than said, and he started to choke. Sally patted him on the back. Gertrude saw, and widened her eyes.

"Ooooh, I see. Who's this bit you've been hiding Jack? Not that I blame you, she's a catch." Jack looked surprised.

"Who? What? Oh no, Sally's just a friend. Actually, she is interested in plants and things." He looked at the doll next to him. "Specifically knock out plants." Understanding came into Gertrude's eyes.

"She's the one staying with Finklestien?"

"Word certainly travels fast," laughed Jack. It certainly did. No sooner had the Mayor wandered off he had started telling people of the pretty girl staying with Finklestien. He never was much good at keeping secrets. "But yes. I am showing her around." Gertrude nodded.

"Come in dearie. I'll set you up right." The three of them ducked into the witches house. They spent the next hour and a half looking at different plants and books and what kind of plant was a good poison to knock someone out with and what plants made for really good soup or seasoning. Jack was rather bored. He didn't eat much, and when he did he didn't really care much for taste. He was more into presentation himself. But Sally was fascinated. Unlike Jack, she and Finklestien had taste buds, and she loved the taste of good food. They left the witch's house with several books on the various plants that grew around Halloweentown, and one even had a section on some of the plants to be found in the woods around it.

She met a lot of people that day: a clown that could take of his face and spent a lot of time riding around on a unicycle (rather badly I might add), she met a fish like creature who was swimming in the fountain, a werewolf, and they even slipped into a dark house which turned out to house four sexually ambiguous vampires. When she asked, Jack said that he didn't know either, but didn't think it polite to ask.

The clock struck five, and Sally gasped. "Oh dear, I should be home, I have to fix Dr. Finklestien's dinner!" She started hurrying towards the town gate, Jack loping easily beside her.

"We'll get there in time Sally, don't…" he stopped suddenly, both in his sentence and in his tracks. A dark shadow had fallen over the path.

"Well, well, well, what have we here? I Ragdoll huh? Oooh, hello, beautiful."

"Hello Oogie," said Jack with distaste.

"I wasn't talking to you, Skeleton Man," sneered Oogie Boogie, the rather recently displaced King of Halloween. "I was talking to this delightful treat," on the word "delightful" a snake had darted out of and then back into his mouth. Oogie Boogie was shaped a bit like a rather deformed shadow. He was white, and seemed to be a Burlap sack sewn over some other horrible shape. Jack wasn't entirely sure what Oogie's true form was, and he didn't want to know either. Oogie had some sort of control over creepy crawlies of every kind, and seemed to sometimes almost leak bugs. Which, Jack thought, might have been truly excellent, and very useful, and definitely something he very much approved of, if it hadn't been Oogie.

"You leave her alone Oogie. Go bother someone else."

"But she's so _interesting_ Jack. She's someone _new_. And we all like new things, don't we Jack?" It seemed to Sally that this Oogie person was saying two things at once, but she wasn't sure exactly what he meant. All she knew, was that he gave her the creeps, and she wanted to get as far away from him as possible, and then stay away. Then there was the fact that Oogie was the only one that Finklestien seemed to hate and fear equally. He didn't seem to like Jack much, but that was probably more because Jack was so much younger than the Doctor himself. Oogie, however, exuded…well, a darkness that she hadn't encountered in any other citizen of Halloweentown. He had a malevolent feel to him, and she could easily picture him viscously murdering someone and enjoying every moment of it. Plus, she didn't like the way he looked at her. Like Jack, he didn't have eyeballs, but also like Jack, she could sense him looking at her. Unlike Jack, she could see that Oogie wanted to do terrible things to her, and that he would if he got the chance. Jack was glaring at Oogie.

"Out of our _way_ Oogie," he spat. "Don't make me fight you." Oogie gave a rather terrifying laugh, not scary in the way that Jack's delighted cackle was scary, but a laugh that seemed to begin somewhere in the bowels of hell itself, and rife with evil incarnate. The Boogieman gave an ironic little bow to the being that had taken his crown, and stepped out of the way. Jack walked Sally up the hill to Dr. Finklestien'

Next Chapter—Halloween. And brief backstory on Oogie Boogie

I tried to keep him in character, but I wanted it to be a bit darker than the actual movie. I tried to portray him as being completely evil, but with a smarmy, used car salesman appearance and manner. Sally sees beyond it because she is very perceptive, but Jack just gets vague feelings of distaste for Oogie, because of his unfortunate habit of hurting things on purpose.

Review and critique please!


	3. Chapter 3

Sorry this took so long guys. School's been really hectic lately, and I haven't had any time at all to write. It took me several days to get enough to qualify as a chapter. Plus, I wanted to finish up this particular part of the story. Just to warn you, it is really, really dark. If you don't want to read it, you won't need to. All of these chapters can kind of stand on their own, and there will be a very brief summary of this chapter in the next one. You have been warned.

"IT'S HALLOWEEN!" The shouts and cheers echoed in the streets. Even though it wouldn't technically be Halloween till midnight, they had already started the small things. A few of the skeletons and ghosts had already gone graveyard hopping. The main event would begin at midnight. That's when he and the other, scarier citizens of the town would be leaving in their huge parade. Jack was practically bouncing off the walls he was so excited. Sally was happy too. The Dr. had let her out for the day. He had been quite hesitant about it, he thought she wasn't yet ready, but he decided to allow it this once. He hadn't caught on that she was poisoning him every so often in order to sneak out. Jack said that he hadn't figured it out yet because he didn't want to know, not really, and the brain is exceptionally good at inventing complex explanations for simple questions. Questions like: Why do I sometimes wake up with a pounding headache after lunch? And "How does Sally know Jack if I never let her out?" Sally had been a bit frightened to realize that she really hadn't been careful at all, making straight for Jack's after the Dr. had his back turned. If he had seen….Jack noticed the horrified look on her face and hurried to comfort her. "But like I said Sally, he doesn't notice these things, even if they are glaringly obvious, because he doesn't want to know that his creation isn't exactly the obedient little servant that he wanted. Don't worry about it." Then he leapt into the air, pulling her with him and spinning her in a little circle. "It's Halloween Sally! Cheer up!" He flung open the window. "The best day of the year is !" he screamed out the window. The town immediately erupted in renewed cheering and shrieking and singing. Jack himself slipped out of his window and climbed, spiderlike, down to join the celebrations. Sally smiled to watch him get so excited. This was his day after all. She hurried down the rickety stairs, out of the door and joined the throngs on the streets. It seemed that Midnight would never come.

Of course it did come eventually, though it seemed to a few of the children as though it took considerably longer than usual. It seemed that way to Jack too, but he couldn't show it. Not much anyway. It wasn't fitting of the Pumpkin King to show too much impatience, not when he had so much to do to prepare for the parade. But midnight did come, and the parade began to start moving people out of the town and into the human world.

"_Boys and Girls of every age/wouldn't you like to see something strange?/Come with us and you will see/This our town of Halloween…."_

And so the Halloweentown Anthem went. It was tradition for those not going to scare in the human world to sing off those that were going. Jack wasn't sure who thought up the song, or why the citizens who didn't go scaring sung it. Especially the parts where people said who they were and why they were scary, but Jack wasn't really one to mess with tradition, so he didn't question it too much. He watched everyone go through various tombstones (everyone would come out somewhere different) and stationed two of the vampires at each end of the graveyard, and one of the werewolves to prowl around inside it. They were there mostly to stop Oogie from leaving, but wouldn't hesitate to stop any unauthorized citizen from entering the Human World.

As Jack popped up from a small gravestone, he had the pleasure of terrifying several teenagers who thought they were far to old for trick or treating, and had escaped to the graveyard to prove how not scary Halloween was. As they tore off, screaming about skeletons and dropping cigarettes and beer bottles Jack cackled, the sound of his laugh chasing after them. Oh, god he loved this job.

**Somewhere in the Human World**

"Would you just _shut up_?"

"Make me!" Bryant rolled his eyes. Luke and Sarah were at it again. They had promised their mother that they would be good, that they wouldn't fight, and that they would watch him. Their mother had taken them at their word, though Bryant had seen her eyes drifting over to the liquor cabinet as his siblings had sworn to be good, fingers crossed behind their backs. He wasn't entirely sure what it meant to be an 'alcoholic' but he knew both that it was bad and that his mother was one. He pushed his skeleton mask up on top of his head and stood glaring at them, Luke in his devil outfit and Sarah as a witch.

"Can we please just trick or treat you guys?" Both wheeled on him.

"Can it shrimp!" snapped Luke.

"Yeah, shut it!" Bryant glared.

"I'm telling mom!" he snapped. Both his older siblings rolled their eyes, he could tell even through their masks. But they stopped arguing for a few minutes, long enough anyway to trick or treat at several houses. All three of them had supplies to prank people if the treats they gave out were terrible or stingy. At the fifth house, they finally got to use the first of their tricks. The man gave them each a packet of apple slices. The three children walked away from the house, then, on a count of three by Lock, they whirled and fired a rotten egg each at the man's house, running away cackling as he opened the door and started yelling.

Two hours later, loaded down with snacks and almost out of tricks, they started back to their own house. It had been a successful night, with only two fights between the three of them. They had egged, TP'd or Silly Stringed several houses, and they had even rigged a stink bomb in a mailbox. The lady had given them travel-sized toothbrushes along with some sugar free gum. She totally had it coming. They had almost arrived at their house when Sarah saw something.

"Hey, what's that?" she asked. They wandered over. It was a manhole cover, but it was a kind of orange color, which was strange in and of itself. Then, it _moved_. The orange manhole cover twisted and shook, and finally lay still. The three siblings could only stare. It looked like a very flat jack-o-lantern. Just a manhole with a leering, jack-o-lantern face on it. Then, and this is what made them scream for the first time, it _winked_. It grinned at them, and slowly closed, then reopened just one eye. They turned and started to run. They ran straight into a big, white…..thing. None of them were sure of what was happening. The pumpkin manhole had winked at them, they'd turned to run, smacked straight into a white sack, and were pushed backwards. Blind, held tight, and moving back toward the evil manhole cover. Sarah wanted to scream, but was too afraid to open her mouth. There was something on the other side of the white sack thing her face was pressed into. Lots of somethings. And they were moving. More than that, they were wriggling and writhing and moving both with and independently from whatever force was dragging her and her brothers backwards.

They stopped suddenly, and could breathe and see again. And then Sarah really did scream.

There was no way that Oogie Boogie was staying home that year. He had actually figured out a way past the guards last year, but this year was more than just a test run. This year, people would once again fear the Boogie Man.

Once you knew the trick of slipping by the guards, it was easy. Getting past the Vampires was no trouble at all, as long as you were quiet. They had very good hearing, and excellent night vision, but Oogie could be much quieter than his size and shape seemed to permit. He was a lot more agile than he looked as well, which made scaling the wall easy. He watched the werewolf until it was gone, then he slowly dropped himself down the wall and over to the nearest tombstone, opened it, and was off to the human world. He knew that he had to avoid Jack, wherever Jack was, but he also knew Jack's schedule. At this time of night, the current Pumpkin King was usually in Europe somewhere, and this particular headstone passage lead to the United States of America. No one ever said that Oogie ever did things halfway. He had done his homework, made his own plans, and bided his time. He was very good at what he did.

Once in the human world, it was easy too. People didn't scare as easy as they used to, but that was no problem for Oogie Boogie. He knew what scared people, and was very, very good at fabricating it. He was a master of illusion and fright. He had the very useful power to get inside your head, pick out their worst nightmares, and serve them to you on a platter.

But scaring wasn't enough, he soon realized. He had been scaring people, without actually hurting them all night long, and still nothing topped the screams of the woman he had kidnapped to Halloweentown all those years before. That is when he decided to do a little kidnapping again. He wanted, desparatly, to re-create the screams of that woman. The sounds, in memory, still gave him little thrills every single time. Unfortunately, finding someone to kidnap was much harder than it had been last time. That lady had been on her way home, alone, and kind of drunk. Here, people were going about in packs, and even if there was someone alone, Oogie didn't think he could take a full-grown person, and all of the children were accompanied by at least one of these. That is when he spied the trio. He watched them for almost half an hour, to figure out if there was someone with them, or if they were alone. He watched them prank an old lady because, apparently, she had yelled at them once, and then laugh hysterically to see the old woman soaked by the bucket they had rigged to tip over when the door opened. These children would do nicely, Oogie decided. He grabbed a manhole cover nearby, in the direction the children were headed—strange how deserted this street was, but Oogie didn't question his luck at this point, he didn't know how long it would last and he wanted to be gone before his luck ran out—and switched it for a special kind of putty he made, specially to take the form of whatever it was he wanted it to look like. In this case, a manhole cover that looked like a pumpkin. Once it got the attention of the three children by shifting form so they could see the jack-o-lantern face, it winked, terrifying them so completely that they turned to run. Oogie had silently followed behind them, and when they turned to run, he was there to catch them. He practically flew down the manhole, dashing through the pipes of the sewer to get to the graveyard. He didn't even stop when he opened the grave to take them back to Halloweentown. No one was in the graveyard, he assumed the wolf had gotten bored, or hungry, and he easily slipped by the vampires again on his way to his house. The children he deposited in a cage and stepped back to look at them more carefully. The girl dressed as a witch, had her mouth pressed firmly closed, until she looked at him and screamed.

Sarah tried to stop herself from screaming, but she couldn't. It wasn't that the creature in front of them was particularly scary to look at, he wasn't, just a white doughy looking thing made out of cloth and with eye sockets and a mouth. But the vibe he gave off was utterly terrifying. Bryant thought he was scary looking, and Luke was too dazed to think anything. The creature laughed, and that laugh was so bone chilling it made the hairs on Sarah's neck and arms stand up. It also shocked her out of her hysterics. She just stared at the creature, heart in her mouth, feeling cold. Bryant could barely breathe, and that laugh seemed to burrow into his mind, going on and on and on and on….a broken record that he couldn't turn off.

"Go on and scream little girl," the creature laughed again. "I learned my lesson after the last time. No one can hear you." Sarah felt her breath hitching. She couldn't scream now if she wanted to, and she did, so badly, but her body wouldn't let her. She pitched and heaved and shook and did not make a sound. Luke stared around with dead eyes, life slowly coming back into his expression, which slowly changed from confused to scared.

"Glad you could join us," said the monster in front of them. "It is so much more…_fun_ if you are quite awake." He gave a wide grin, and Sarah gave a yelp and scooted back as far as the cage would allow. His teeth seemed to be some sort of glowing bug, or worm or something. Sarah absolutely hated bugs of every sort. She usually pretended she didn't mind, but here, now, bravado went out the window. "Don't like bugs?" he asked. She couldn't move to shake her head. "Well, then, what about sssssssssssssssssssnakes?" as he asked, a snake, acting as what seemed like a tongue, darted out from his mouth and into the cage. Bryant glanced at the snake, and then at his sister. Sarah glanced back at him. "N-n-n-n-n-ooo" she stuttered. Actually, she didn't mind snakes at all, Bryant hated them though, and Sarah knew that. Unfortunately, Oogie knew that she was lying. This delighted him. And it also made him a little bit peeved.

"Ah-ah-ah! Oogie Boogy always knows when you are lying! I think, it's _you_ that doesn't like the snakes!" He pointed directly at Bryant. The snake turned its attention immediately from Sarah and focused on her little brother, slithering toward him, and around and around him. Over and behind, never still, always circling. Bryant couldn't move, and his siblings could only watch, legs frozen to the floor.

"Stop it please!" screamed Sarah.

"Let us out!" sobbed Bryant.

"Why are you doing this to us?" cried Luke. "Who are you?"

"Who am I? Who am I?" The question seemed to enrage the creature that had kidnapped them. "I am _fear_. I am everything that terrifies _you._ I am the shadow on the moonlight night, filling your dreams to the _brim_ with utter and complete _terror!_ I," he hissed, "am the boogieman, and you ain't goin' _nowhere…_"

The werewolf had in fact, been answering Nature's Call when Oogie had slipped out of the graveyard. However, when he returned, he could smell the humans. "Oh no," he thought. There was only one person who would bring humans to Halloweentown. "I have to find Jack!" He, like Oogie, knew that Jack was generally in Europe this time of night. However, there were a lot of places he could be; Europe has a lot of graveyards. The wolf dove into the nearest grave leading to Europe he saw, he popped up in the cemetery and sniffed around. Jack had been there, but the scent was too faint. It had been a while. He fled back down the passage and found another grave. No scent of Jack at all. Eight more times he popped down graves and arrived in cemeteries all over Europe, only to be disappointed each time. Finally, the ninth grave he came out of Jack's scent was still fresh. Incredibly fresh. He had just arrived! He followed his nose, ignored the cries of terror of those that saw him, although he relished them later. "Jack!" he yelled as soon as he caught up to the skeleton man.

"What are you doing here? You are supposed to be…" The werewolf interrupted.

"Humans in Halloweentown Jack. Humans." Jack froze for just a moment before sprinting toward the graveyard. He too knew only one person who would bring humans to Halloweentown.

By the time he got to Oogie's Jack was scared. The house was utterly silent. He crept into the house, listening hard. Then he heard it…laughter. Oogie was laughing. Jack wasted no time, he moved faster than he could ever remember moving in his life. Or afterlife as the case might be.

"OOGIE!" he thundered. The Boogieman jumped. The skeleton man scared him as much as he hated to admit it. "What have you _done?_" Oogie just grinned, masking his fear, which was slowly ebbing in the afterglow of his success. The screams of the children had been beautiful. While they lasted. He had forgotten how fragile human children could be…

Jack saw them, three children, a trick or treat bag in a small cage near them. Two of them were quite dead, a girl and a boy. The third was still alive, but just barely. He saw Jack, his eyes widening behind his Devil's mask. "Help…"he whispered. Then his eyes closed. Jack turned a furious glare on Oogie, who, once again, in the fury of Jacks gaze began to feel afraid again.

"You, Oogie Boogie, have broken a sacred law of Halloweentown, not once, but twice. This time, it is unforgivable. You are _never_ to show your face here again. If you cross the line again, you will not survive. I promise you that." He looked at the children. As the first rays of sunlight slowly bled into the basement room from its one window, they started moving. Jack had known they would. They had been killed on Halloween, in Halloweentown, by one of its citizens. It had only happened once before, and Jack had never met the killer, though he had met the one who had been killed. Dr. Roger Finklestien had never walked again after the ordeal done to his body before death, but he lived as a servant to the one who had killed him till the creature himself had been killed, albeit accidentally, in an illicit foray to the human realm. "Take the children and go. They are tied to you now Oogie. Leave Halloweentown. You are not allowed to come back." To Jack's surprise, Oogie did as he said. He grabbed the children, who were still weakly stirring, and left the room. Jack sighed. The children were tied to Oogie now, his personal slaves until Oogie himself died. And he knew that they would be twisted even more after death by Oogie than they had before he had eventually killed them.

The three became known as Lock, Shock, and Barrel, and none of them remembered a time before Halloweentown. All they knew was that they lived on the outskirts of town and did everything that Oogie Boogie told them to do. Everything.

AN: Wow that was complicated. And a bit long. Sorry about that, but there was a lot more needed than I realized to make it make sense.

It is a little unclear how the timing of everything in Halloweentown versus the human world works. Jack could leave Halloweentown at Midnight, arrive in New York by 8 and then, at 9 be seen in London. The extensive graveyard system was an excellent means of travel, but if a human tried to use it, they would probably not get very far without food, drink, or light. But the Pumpkin King had no trouble at all crossing oceans in seconds via this underground network. I suppose it is the magic of the thing.

Don't forget to review and comment! (And tell me if you have ideas for what to do next! I think I want to do something with Sally, because she wasn't in this chapter much.)


	4. Chapter 4

OK, so I guess no one read my last entry. If you did, would you please review it? I am totally open to flames too. Basically, I want to know what people think of it. It was originally going to just be a one shot anyway, and if no one is going to review it or give me ideas about what they want to see happen, I have absolutely no qualms in ending it right now. So, if you want me to continue, please review or flame. If you don't, well, I have other things to do.

Anyway, if I get nothing on this chapter too, I'll take the hint and stop writing this story.

And if you are actually enjoying this story, sorry it has taken me so long to update. I have had three tests already this week (and its only Tuesday!) and another coming up. My dorm has basically been study central, and I haven't had any time at all to write anything. This chapter is a lot less dark than the previous.

~ice-storm1196

Jack Skellington walked out of his house and, upon taking his first step out the door, promptly fell head over heels down the stairs. Immediately, raucous laughter rent the air. Jack growled a bit as he got to his feet, muttering dark nothings under his breath as he checked to make sure nothing was cracked or bruised. The three children once known as Luke, Sarah, and Bryant were now called Lock, Shock, and Barrel. They remembered nothing of their lives or of their death, but unfortunately their personalities hadn't changed, at least not for the better. If anything, they were even more argumentative and authority hating than before. For the past three months it had been almost impossible to go anywhere without being pranked by the trio. Door knobs had been greased, water and sludge mixtures precariously placed on doors so unsuspecting citizens would get drenched, little balls placed just outside doors, sending people sliding all over the place, and trip wires like the one Jack had just fallen victim to were the norm. People had taken to being twice as careful as before (and it wasn't as though pranks had been uncommon either, but the threat had effectively tripled overnight), checking doors, kicking them open suddenly to avoid possible drenchings, looking carefully for anything that might have tripped them down the stairs. Most of the pranks had been pretty harmless, and Jack had been forced to choke back laughter when one of the witches had come to him with a tail, complaining that the "little brats" had switched all their ingredient labels around, and eye of newt and eye of salamander look exactly alike and now she had a tail instead of a wart and what exactly was Jack going to do about it? Jack had merely told her that she looked quite nice with a bushy grey tail, and suggested she try to figure out how to get ears to go along with it, and she had threatened to make him have truly awful luck for the next 6 years, and then he really had laughed and suggested she get her ingredients labeled straight again, and she had gone off in a huff. That night she had attempted to curse Jack as threatened, but worm sludge and pond juice look very similar, and "the little brats" had stolen both labels and all she managed to do was turn her hair bright pink.

However, not all their pranks were quite so amusing and harmless. Jack was horrified when they drained the fountain as the lake monster was swimming in it, had Harlequin not passed by just as the Monster started to pass out from lack of water and get him back to the lake, the results could have been a lot worse. The worst thing they had done to date though (besides exchange the werewolf's pewter bowl with a silver one—Jack still had no idea where they had gotten a silver bowl, but he suspected an illicit excursion to the human world) was nailing the Vampires coffins shut just moments before the dawn. Lock maintained that they had started hours before, and hadn't expected it to take so long, but the fact remained that if the graves nearby weren't part of the extensive cemetery system from Halloweentown to the human world, the Vampires would have been unable to hide from the sun entirely, and most certainly would have died. The children had been forced to take all they nails out of the coffins, and then, Jack watching, make new ones, better ones as an apology to the Vampires. The coffins ended up being quite delightful, and Jack refrained from telling the Vampires that he had stopped Barrel from rigging them with Holy Water. Barrel said that he didn't know that Holy Water was different from regular water, except that Lock and Shock had told him that it would turn the Vampires funny colors, and he wanted to see it. Jack explained that Holy Water was as bad for Vampires as the Sun was, and Barrel seemed repentant, but he had a rather nasty look in his eye as he scampered off after his brother and sister. Jack sent them out of town for the rest of the day.

Of course, the next day they had gotten him back, with the trip wire. Jack sighed again. But at least they wouldn't try anything more with the holy water. They'd moved on to another target—him. But they had never had very long attention spans anyway, they would make brilliant plans one day, and the next decide that they were far to complicated and do something easier instead. Plus, jack had confiscated all of their Holy Water and it would be far too much trouble for them to get more. Jack had people guarding the exits from Halloweentown, to ensure they didn't leave.

But now that he had the Holy Water, he didn't mind too much that they had broken the rules (probably) to get it. Vampires couldn't touch it, but he could, and it was very tasty to him. He'd had some in the past, in his youthful days at a rather smashing party thrown by Dr. Finklestien. In essence, Holy Water had the effect of alcohol on most Halloweentown residents (except, obviously, those on whom it acted like poison) and it didn't take very much.

Jack pulled his mind from the temptation of the Water in his house and started off for Dr Finklestiens, the council meeting being the reason he had left his house at all, his lateness being the reason he hadn't looked where he was going.

Of the council meeting, which was really rather boring, I won't say much, only that Dr. Finklestien was quite rude to Jack about being late, even though everyone else quite understood about the trip wire. Finklestien was the only resident of the town that hadn't yet been pranked by Lock, Shock, and Barrel, and Jack was pretty sure that it was because he lived so far out of the way, and he never left his house, and the trio was simply too lazy to make the trip.

After the council meeting, Sally managed to slip out with the rest of the council. Most understood her desire to leave without being caught, so they circled up around her, hiding her from Finklestien. She whispered her thanks, and the Mayor said, "Just make me some more of that delicious Wormswood and we'll call it even!" Sally laughed and promised to bring him some next time she was in town. She went to the witches house first to help them re-label their ingredients and to return the book she'd borrowed from them most recently, as well as to borrow another. She promised Jack that she'd come visit him after she was done. He nodded, and then loped off to his house, already tasting the Water in his mind. He was so excited that he didn't even mind that Lock, Shock, and Barrel had stolen his doorknob. He just climbed in the window, found a new doorknob quickly (he had a little pile in a box next to his door, for just such occasions—they were rather notorious for stealing doorknobs), and after fixing the door went straight to the tabl where he had left the Holy Water. He considered whether there was enough for Sally, and, lamenting that there wasn't enough for a party like the one Finklestien had thrown all those years ago, decided that no, there wasn't even enough for Sally, drank the bottle in one gulp. Now, to be fair, there really wasn't all that much Water at all. There was about enough to fill one of those cups you get at the dentist, so Jack was probably right in his decision that there was not enough to adequately share with Sally. However, Jack, in the intermittent years between Finkelstiens party and his confiscation of the Water from Barrel, was that at that party, he'd gotten fairly well smashed on just a thimbleful of the liquid. In his mind, he imagined that he had been drinking the stuff all night long, from big cups, cauldrons of the stuff. If he had perhaps been a bit fatter, then he could have handled more of the Water, but the fact that he was so much bone, well…lets just say he didn't hold his Holy Water well.

When Sally arrived at Jack's house about an hour or so later, she was a bit alarmed to hear a truly awful sound coming from it. She never could later describe the sound, just that it was truly terrible, fully of screeching and wailing and random cackles. I think that most of the residents of Halloweentown would have liked it, even if maybe it was a bit strong even for them, but to Sally it sounded just as bad as it probably would to a human.

In any case, she thought Jack must be in trouble. "Jack!" she called, flinging open the door. The scene before her made her stop dead in her tracks. There was a very precarious pile of books and chairs and random debris. It was next to the chandelier, where Jack was currently draped, placing more objects on top of his little pile, singing a truly heinous song. He stopped when he saw her.

"!" he cried, and then laughed as though he had said something tremendously funny. "Come come come come come!" he yelled, as though she was quite far away, the words pouring out of his mouth as though they couldn't get out fast enough and where tripping over themselves in their haste. "LOOK!" He said pointing to his junk mountain. "See? Now the jackernickles can get to their party!" He looked quite pleased with himself.

"The…the whats?"

"The _jackernickles!_" he repeated, as though it was obvious. "They have a party on the chandelier, but they are awfully small, so I built them a ladder! And now they can get to their party! And they will paint pretty pictures of me!" he let go of the chandelier to clap his hands, but of course, as he was no longer holding on with the hand he _hadn't _been making ladders for jackernickels with, he slipped right through the spindly arms of the chandelier. He landed with a rather large thump on the ground, making the massive pile he had made sway precariously. "NO!" he yelled. "Save it!" but as he stood to try and protect the swaying mountain, he toppled over backwards, long legs flying over his head. This struck him as absolutely hilarious. "Did you see that?" he asked Sally.

"I don't think it was possible to miss" she said weakly. "What did you do Jack?"

"Not Jack!" he declared. "My name is Scaroosh! And I am the savior of the Jackernickles!" He paused, staring at her for a moment. "And the of mufflisallys! They wanted to go to the party too, but they are even tinier than the jackernickels."

"What did you _do?_" Sally repeated. "Uh…before you became the savior of the jackernickles and er….mufflisallys." Jack paused, thinking hard. He couldn't quite remember…then he saw the little bottle, still on the table.

"OH!" he yelled. "Woly Hater! I mean, Holy Water!" he laughed again. "YUM!" he roared loudly.

"OK, Jack,"

"…"He had started to correct her on his imagined name, but started laughing midsentence. Sally was more than a little concerned. She looked around, searching for something to snap him out of it, but saw nothing. Jack was certainly a bachelor. "I meant to save some for you Sally." He said.

"Really?"

"No. Not really, but there wasn't much of it anyway!" he said defensively.

"It's ok, I don't drink Holy Water." Jack nodded.

"It'ssss good." He said, speaking slowly now, and quietly. "But, oh…tired," and he fell on the floor asleep. Sally had no idea what to do. She couldn't go get help, not when Jack seemed to have gone insane, but she couldn't leave him lying like that either. She settled him straight out on the floor, found him a pillow, covered him with a blanket, and started putting his "ladder" away. She was almost done when Jack started waking up.

"Ooooh, my _head_" he moaned. Then he saw Sally, standing amid debris. He struggled to remember what exactly had happened. He had drank the little cup of Holy Water and then….Suddenly, he remembered the mere thimbleful he'd had at Finklesteins party and looked in horror at the two inch long bottle on the table. He had drank all that? No wonder his head hurt. And no wonder he couldn't remember…no. Oh no. Nonononononononononono.

"Sally?" he asked, tentatively. "Why do I get the feeling that I started talking about invented creatures?"

"Um. Well, you see…"

"No. Oh, no. You can't tell anyone, ok? Please?" She paused. "Look, it's been so long, I've forgotten how much…little…of that stuff I can actually have. It wasn't even that much, but…ok, look. It's just that….well I…."Sally started laughing.

"You gave me such a scare Jack! And not the good kind. I had no idea what was wrong with you." He gave her a little grin.

"I'm not crazy. But Gertrude told me that the last time…oh god, it was years ago, and I'd forgotten till now, but last time I became convinced there was a bunch of little creatures that needed to get somewhere quite high, and I _had_ to build a ladder for them." He looked at the now much smaller tower next to Sally. "I guess some things don't change." Sally looked embarrassed. Jack put his hands on his aching head.

"Oh, I don't deserve you Sally. Cleaning up my mess, giving me a blanket. And pillow." Sally gave him a little grin.

"Actually, now that I know what happened, the whole thing was really quite funny. I will carry the image of you swinging from that chandelier convinced you were helping out little jackernickles and mufflisallys forever. It will be a good way to pass the time when I am alone at the castle." She gave him an evil little grin. "I think I'll draw it. 'Jack saves the jackernickels!' It'll be a great addition to the Mayor's art collection in town hall don't you think?" Jack's jaw dropped.

"You wouldn't!" he gasped.

"No, but you should see your face!" she said, laughing. "Sometime you'll have to tell me exactly what a jackernickle is, and why it was so important for them to get to that party. But now, I really should be getting back home. Get some sleep Jack. I'll leave some powder that is great for getting rid of a headache. At least, according to Gertrude." Jack started to nod, winced, gave her a thumb up instead, and slowly climbed the stairs to his bedroom. Sally placed the headache powder on the table, grabbed the Holy Water bottle and placed it on the bookshelf, as a reminder to Jack _not_ to drink it again, and softly slipped out of his house, down the stairs, through the town, and snuck back into the castle she shared with Dr. Finklestien. She took one last glance at Jack's house through her window, then slipped into bed herself, just in time for Finklestien to pop his head through the door, checking to see if she was actually there. Satisfied, he slipped out of her room, but he could have sworn he heard soft laughter coming from it, and a muttered word that sounded like 'jackernickles.'


	5. Chapter 5

Hey guys, thanks for sticking with me. Sorry it's been so long, and I realize I have said this before, but things at school were hectic. Finals week, and then, after I got home from school, I had surgery. Technically, I had my wisdom teeth out, so I pretty much constantly had ice pressed to my face. I discovered that it is really hard to type with one hand….so anyway, I have finally gotten back for real, and I can write again (yay!) I apologize if this chapter isn't very good, but I seriously have absolutely NO idea what to write about. I know that that makes me seem kind of irresponsible for posting at all, but hey. It was gonna be a one shot. So, as I have said before, any ideas? Tell me. Please. I know how the story ends, but if no one has any clue what wild hijinks Jack should get into, my next chapter will be the last. Ok, so read and review please! Or flame.

It was one year after the Oogie Boogie debacle. Jack was both excited and worried about Halloween, coming up in one week's time. He refused to let this year's Halloween turn out like the last year. To prevent it, he had enlisted the help of Doctor Finklestien as well as hundreds of non-citizen monsters he had contacts with. He took Sally to meet some of them. First, they went to a lake just outside the town. "Hector!" Jack had called, and the creature, a large serpent had slowly raised its head from the depths.

"Jack. It's been far too long. You never come to visit me anymore." Jack had laughed.

"Well, if the stories are true, you are spending more and more time in the human world anyway. I do wish you would do a bit more with it though. You could really do some serious scaring up there. And you can go whenever you choose." The monster had tilted its head to the left, the right, and back to center—its equivalent of shrugging.

"I like my way Jack, you know that. But what can I do for you?"

"You heard what happened last year?" The huge lake monster nodded. "Basically, I am looking to prevent that happening again. So, if you wouldn't mind keeping an eye out?"

"One condition."

"What?"

"Come visit me sometime soon. No one can almost beat me in checkers like you can." Jack had agreed, and he and Sally walked back toward the town.

"So, who exactly was that?" Sally had asked.

"Oh, that's Hector. It isn't his real name, but I can't pronounce it. It takes five minutes to say even if I could. But there is a part right in the middle that sounds like Hector, and he is ok with me calling him that."

"So he goes into the human world whenever he wants?"

"He isn't a Halloweentown citizen. Plus, his Lake is sort of…well…from it he can pretty easily get to any big body of water anywhere. He spends most of his time at home, but sometimes he goes over to the human world. He only lets himself be seen in this one lake in Scotland. I think they call it Loch Ness….but anyway, he lets himself get seen there time to time because they saw him once by accident. But the humans think he is a hoax because he can just slip back to this world whenever he chooses. It's quite amusing really, but he never lets himself get seen in any other big lake or ocean or anything. "

"So, the Loch Ness monster plays checkers?"

"Yes he does, and quite well I might add. He is very brilliant—it is why he has only been seen accidentally one time. I want him to show himself in maybe the Hudson river or something—somewhere in America. They are so funny over there when it comes to myths and legends. Speaking of which—would you like to meet America's Bigfoot?" Sally blinked.

"It's big…foot?" She asked, trying to picture what about America looked in any way like a foot. From the map Jack had in his study, she guessed Florida looked kind of big foot-ish, but she had assumed that states couldn't actually move about. Jack tried his hardest to bit back a laugh, but he couldn't help it.

"Sorry," he apologized when she ducked her head, letting her hair hide her face. She was embarrassed, and for once glad she couldn't blush. "Not a big foot like a very large foot or anything. Technically, she's called a Sasquatch. And she is a creature that sometimes lives in America's wooded areas. She does have very big feet itself, but don't mention it to her. She can be quite vain. She isn't as intelligent as Hector either, but she will be a bit more useful in making sure no one sneaks out. There are ways out through the woods too. If Hector watches the lakes, and she and her family watch the woods, I will rest a bit easier." Sally nodded, still feeling a bit embarrassed, but at the same time, a bit amused and elated that Jack was talking so much. She knew that he was explaining things that were probably common knowledge to everyone else, but it was still interesting to her.

"What is her name?" Jack shrugged.

"It is another name I cannot pronounce, but she won't let me give her a nickname. I think she is very private. I know she has a family, because she has mentioned them once or twice, but I've never even seen one of them. She'll meet with me then delegate." They had reached about the middle of the woods by that point, and stood next to a very large, very oddly shaped rock. It looked a bit like a giraffe, Sally thought, but somehow, when you looked at it from the opposite side, looked more like a walrus. She was still trying to figure out exactly how the rock managed it, when a noise from behind her startled her out of her reverie. The sasquatch was about a foot taller than Jack, almost three times as wide, and much, much hairier. The biggest part about her though, were her feet. They didn't look at all proportional to even her enormous body. They looked a bit ridiculous honestly, sort of like if a human had feet the size of surfboards. The Sasquatch and Jack went through a conversation very similar to the one he'd had with Hector the Lake Monster, except she told him not to come back again unless he really needed her help, promising to ensure no one left, but hoping he didn't need her again for a while. Jack was very busy that day, and the next, and the next. He went all around the outskirts of Halloweentown, asking for the help of various ogres, trolls, goblins and hobgoblins, and various other monsters that didn't live in the town itself, yet still had ties with Halloween. He wasn't their king, but they all agreed to help him anyway. Some even agreed to keep a full time watch on Oogie Boogie, until such time as a guard was no longer needed. Jack accepted the offer, even though he knew that within a few years at the latest, if he was lucky, the guard would get bored and leave the boogieman alone. But if he could have even a small reprieve from worrying about Oogie, he was going to take it.

Jack later explained to Sally that though he was King of Halloween, he was really only the ruler of the town. So all the citizens had to listen to him no matter what, but those that lived outside the town—monsters that had never lived in the town, and knew how to get to the human realm (and went there often, in some cases—the hobgoblins felt they could never have enough left socks. Probably because due to a weird genetic anomaly, most of them literally had two left feet)—listened to the Halloweentown ruler, but they didn't have to do as he said. They lived outside the boarders, and lived however they wanted to. But they were loyal allies, and Jack didn't care too much about expanding the boarders of Halloweentown. Oogie had wanted to, Jack had seen the plans. Most of the non-citizen Monsters often helped him out because they were relieved that he didn't want their lands like his predecessor had. But Jack believed in freedom. Not enough to make Halloweentown a real democracy of course, but he had enough to worry about with Halloween planning to worry about a potential war. Plus, as far as he was concerned, war was too human a thing to bring to Halloweentown. Jack thought Human things should be left in the Human world, where they belonged.

Anyway, after he finished talking to the Outside Monsters, he went to Dr. Finklestien. The doctor had created a special card for each of the citizens allowed to leave the Town and go into the Human World. Bascially, it was coated with a special serum that only two people could touch. One was Jack, and the other was the citizen it was meant for. The graves leading out of Halloweentown were marked too—the citizen would put the card next to the marker, and, if it was truly their card, marked with both their own and Jack's signitures, then they would be allowed to go through. If not—if say, Lock stole one of the Vampire's cards and tried to get through, the grave wouldn't open for him, and one of the ghosts would go tell Jack—or more probably the mayor, what was happening. Jack had quadrupled security and put all the ghosts on alert. No one was going to get through to the Human World that wasn't supposed to be there.

"Isn't it a bit…extreme?" asked Sally. "I mean, the cards. It is really complicated. Isn't it enough to put the ghosts and monsters on alert and tell them not to let any unauthorized citizen through?" Jack shrugged, shuffling through some last minute plans scattered about on his rather spindly desk.

"Probably, but Finklestien really wanted to help. I need him to like me, and refusing his assistance would just make him hate me again. I just want to get through it. This won't be necessary next year."

"He likes you now?" asked Sally, surprised. She hadn't known that. The Doctor never mentioned Jack if he could help it, and when he did, it wasn't usually in a nice way. Granted, this past year he hadn't really mentioned Jack at all. It was almost as though he didn't know what to say about Jack if he wasn't insulting him. The skeleton in question gave her a toothy grin.

"Better than before anyway. He lets me borrow his stuff now. So hey, I might see you at the mansion one of these days."

"Yeah maybe," said Sally softly. She watched him, intensely going through the plans, making marks here and there, so very much in his element. She was surprised. She had never really thought of Jack as anything but a friend, but there was an odd tugging at her heart and in a dark corner of her mind. Something that was secretly pleading for more than friendship with the skeleton man. She like his intensity and his love for his job and his town and…well, there wasn't really anything about him that she didn't like. Suddenly, she wanted very much to tell him how she felt, to see if he felt the same way. "Jack?" she asked after a moment.

"Yes?" He glanced up from a paper that he had been staring at for a good five minutes, giving it up as a lost cause, and glad for the interruption. He liked the eldest Vampire's plans very much, but he was _so_ wordy, and would often you eleven or twelve words where one would do, and most of the time, it was really hard to understand, and took three or four readings. He wasn't nearly as bad as the ghost of Charles Dickens, whom Jack had banned from ever writing out plans again, but it was close. However, the Vampire was older than Jack, and so Jack did have to show some respect for the old bloodsucker, which basically meant no banning him from writing out his ornate plans.

Sally, surprised to see Jack actually looking at her, and not at the paper, was suddenly nervous. "I just wanted to ask…"she stopped, then sighed, losing her nerve completely, and asking the first thing that came to mind that had absolutely nothing to do with feelings, hers or anyone elses. "What is the worst Halloween ever? Not including anything to do with Oogie Boogie I mean? The worst thing that happened to you?" Jack thought a moment, at first to figure out exactly what she meant with her syntax-challenged sentence, and, once he had puzzled out what she wanted to know, he had to consider it for a bit.

"Halloween 1943." He said finally. "I don't know if you know this, but there was a war on then. There'd been one not too long before, but this one seemed to be worse. There wasn't too many people out, trick or treating, I mean. I was in England at the time, had managed to scare a few kids with there parents, but it wasn't really a Halloween for the books…."

…..He had been a little confused as to why no one was out and about. He figured it was probably the war—he had heard some people talking about it last year, and he could only assume it was still going on. This was confirmed when he saw the first bombed out shell of a house. It was completely destroyed, and the houses on either side of it were empty. It hadn't been that way last Halloween-he remembered the neighborhood. He remembered all the neighborhoods. Suddenly he heard a noise, a loud, shrieking alarm. He later learned that this was an air raid siren, but at the time, it was just a rather load alarm. He actually quite liked the sound if it. The few people on the street started running around at the first sound.

'I gotta get me one of those' he'd thought. This device can cause such panic with just a sound! It could come in useful. He started toward a large pole with a speaker on it—it seemed to be the source of the alarm, when he heard quite another sound. Running feet, a yell. Momentarily distracted, Jack had slipped silently through the shadows toward the sound. Maybe he could get in an extra scare or two and his England trip wouldn't be entirely wasted. He could always return for the scare alarm later. A boy ran out of the shadows between the houses a moment later, young-even for a human-maybe only seven or eight. Or he could have been twelve, Jack could never tell with humans. Several others were pursuing the boy; Jack wasn't sure how many, but he waited. Better to scare the whole lot of them at once, it was more fun than one at a time. Four other boys had just burst through the gap between houses when there was a strange whistling. Jack wasn't sure why, but it frightened him, and the fact he was frightened bothered him more than he'd cared to admit. All five boys froze in place as the whistling got closer. Then, there was a huge bang not far away, from the direction the boys had come. Jack's jaw had dropped. He couldn't see the damage from his position, the houses had blocked his way, but from the smoke and flames rising in the distance, he could tell what had happened to the burned out shells of houses he had seen earlier. The whistling came again, but the human boys seemed incapable of moving. It came closer and closer, and Jack had realized that whatever it was making the explosions and destroying houses was going to land right about where he and the boys were standing. He didn't know how much damage one of the explosive things would cause, but he also didn't want to wait around to find out.

"Did you run Jack?" asked Sally. "Did you leave them to die?" Jack paused, then shook his head.

"No. Almost, I started to run away, but I looked back. I could see the projectile going straight for them. It usually isn't in my nature to help humans, but I also don't like to see anything get hurt if I can help it. Well," he amended, "unless they really deserve it. I know that sometimes the citizens of the town spread rumors and things of all the people I have sent to an early grave through my scare tactics, but it isn't true. At least, not to my knowledge. It is a useful rumor though—I am only King so long as no one is scarier than me."

"The children Jack. What happened?" The pumpkin king gave Sally a bit of a ragged grin. She was certainly stubborn, that was for sure.

"I turned around and ran back toward them. 'Move!' I yelled waving my arms making quite a racket. More than the bombs and things -that's what the explosive projectiles were, bombs," Jack told Sally. She had figured that out herself, but didn't let him know that, she just nodded, knowing that explaining she was not as ignorant as he sometimes seemed to think would just slow down his story. She wasn't in the mood for apologies. "They saw me, and started screaming. Any other time, I would have loved it, later, when I was back here, I replayed the situation and decided in spite of it all, I was still quite pleased about their reaction. It might be awful of me, but there you go. The boys that had been chasing the first one I saw all managed to run off. I don't know what happened to them. The first boy still couldn't move, he just stood there, gaping. I didn't know what to do, but I could see the bomb clearly now, and I am sure he could too. So, I grabbed him and jumped toward the ally he had come from. I am a very fast runner, but even I can't out run a bomb. It goes faster if I jump. Even with the jumping, the force of the explosion carried me and the boy several feet through the air, lots of debris from the street and house the bomb had hit. He hit his head against a wall, but he was alive when I left him. " Jack raised a hand to stop Sally's question. "There was a house next door that still had people living in it. They were in the cellar I think at the time, but I could smell fresh food in the house, and it had every sign of inhabitance. I left him on the back porch, so the people that lived there would see him right way when they got out of the cellar.

Not all my people were as lucky as me though. I'd had the fortune of seeing what the bombs could do and managing to get out of the way. I lost thirteen good citizens that night. Well, fifteen really,considering that although two of them lived, they now refuse to ever go out anymore." Jack sighed. "That Halloween is the reason we built our Viewing Well. We can see what is going on in the Human World without actually having to be there. It keeps us safe, plus it allows the possibility of monitoring those out there scaring the humans. It helps keep the citizens in check if they think someone might be watching."

"Oh, Jack, I am so sorry. It must have been terrible for you." Jack nodded.

"It wasn't good, I'll give you that. Most of us have gotten over it—it was a long time ago. But, unlike humans, we don't forget. We monitor the Human world throughout the year. Every day in October, but only every so often the rest of the time. If there is a human war on, we don't go out." He shrugged. "we learn. Hence heightened security on Oogie. It is only one example." He brightened. "But THIS Halloween will be lots of fun! I am placing people in Human Houses this year. Only ghosts and such, but it will be a lot of fun! Also, we are going to try an actual Haunted House. Several of my best people are already there, setting up—in the dead of night of course—but we are getting word out to the humans about it. They won't be able to resist! And it will be the best haunted house any of them have ever seen!" He cackled gleefully, rubbing his bony hands together in anticipation. He looked over at her suddenly. "Do you want to come? You could do good work. Come around a corner screaming as maybe one of the werewolves rips your arm off or something." He looked entranced, thinking about it. "And then, he'd go growling away, but you could jump up and run, holding your arm, screaming, and go through the people and hit a few of them with it…." He grinned at her, getting excited now. "Of course, for maximum impact, we'd have to have them see you before, perfectly whole. Maybe you could pose as one of them—we could easily make you look like a human in a costume." Sally could tell he was excited about the prospect. He was getting even more ideas, she could tell by the way he kept glancing at his papers and tapping his fingers. She could almost see him itching to pick up the pencil and start scribbling,

"Well, I'd like to, but….Dr. Finklestien…." Jack waved a dismissive hand.

"I'll promise him that I'll take good care of you. And give him permission for that thing he wants to do. He'll let you go."

"What thing?" She wasn't aware of any new project.

"Oh, just a thing. I don't really understand it myself, but he's been asking permission for a while. I already know it won't hurt anyone. I'll just say 'Yes Dr, I'll let you do it' instead of 'Let me think about it' and go away without any intention of thinking it over at all. Trust me, he'll let you go if I let him do his little experiment." Sally still hesitated. She wasn't sure she could really scare anyone. She wasn't sure it was in her nature to want to scare anyone. However, when she tentatively mentioned this to Jack, he was incredulous. "You are a citizen of Halloweentown. It is your job to scare people. It is impossible you aren't made for it. Anyway, how can you know till you've tried?" She couldn't really think of anything to say to that logic, and moments later, plans were put into place so she could be a part of the Haunted House. Jack had been correct that Finklestien would let her go if given permission to do his project. Jack made all of those who would be scaring in the Haunted House practice over and over until he was satisfied. He himself would be there the entire time, casting an aura of tension and fear. He had recently worked out how to do so, and he was eager to try it out. It seemed to work on the citizens of his town, he couldn't wait to try it on humans.

Jack's enthusiasm was catching. Sally found that she was just as excited to go scaring as he was, even though she still wasn't sure she could do it properly. He was so excited it was impossible for her not to be. Even Finklestien was letting her out without her having to argue or plead or poison him. This Halloween was gearing up to be the best ever.

Ok-done this chapter. Again, sorry it took so long, sorry if it sucks. I have had severe writers block. If you have an idea of what you want to happen, I'd like to know it. If you want to see the Haunted House, let me know. If I don't get any kind of plot related ideas, then the next chapter will be the last. I just thought I'd give you fair warning….anyway, I hope you liked it, even though this was far from my favorite chapter.


	6. Chapter 6

Warning—This chapter is a bit graphic. I don't think it is that bad, but there are some parts that, if I wrote them as well as I hoped, will freak some people out. It isn't anything truly horrible, like the earlier chapter when Oogie killed the kids who became Lock, Shock, and Barrel, because it was done for the purpose of Jack scaring humans. Anyway, you have been warned, the chapter is kind of dark (from a certain perspective. From Jack's, it is just good fun).

Final preparations for the Haunted House were in full swing. Jack had gotten several creatures of all walks of life to participate. Most would be there for the sole purpose of scaring the humans, though some of them—mostly the ghosts, or those that had once been human—were on security detail, to make sure that no one got overzealous and hurt someone. Jack was even stricter about his no hurting humans rule than ever before. He was determined that this Halloween would just be good, clean, scaring fun. He was quite looking forward to a perfect, frightening, yet mostly uneventful Halloween.

He and Sally would be going through the Haunted House as though they were merely curious bystanders. They'd be joining the group of humans, pretending to be scared at all the right times. Sally was worried that Jack would lose himself and act frightened before there was anything to be afraid of, because he knew everything that was coming. So did she as a matter of fact, but she was more confident in her ability to fool the humans than she was in Jack's. Mostly because his entire existence had revolved around scaring other people, not being scared himself. She wasn't at all sure he could pull it off.

The idea was to establish a rapport with the humans, make them think that she and Jack were like them, then, at the end, the big reveals. Jack's costume would just be a pumpkin over his head, and a big cloak over him on a wire frame, so it wouldn't be obvious how impossibly thin Jack really was. Sally would be going basically as herself, but with a cloak, to cover up some stitching that they couldn't pretend was make up. When they were both ready, Jack admired their reflections in the spidery mirror in his living room. They really looked phenomenal. No one would guess that they weren't human until it was time. He really had to hand it to Sally. Her sewing and make up skills were stunning.

"You, my dear, have done a fabulous job." Sally grinned at him in the mirror.

"Thank you Jack. It was fun, designing the costumes."

"Well, time to go! Hurry Sally, we don't want to be late!" Sally had to laugh at the enthusiasm Jack was showing. He had been so nervous all week, but now that it was time, he couldn't think of anything but the fun he would surely have that night. Not a thought of Oogie or hurt humans or citizens sneaking where they didn't belong entered his mind. Only excitement of the haunted house—he couldn't believe he'd never thought of it before! He grabbed Sally's hand, unwilling to wait for her to make her careful steps down his rather precarious stairs, and forced her to run with him. She was laughing and gasping, and hoping against hope that nothing fell off before it was supposed to.

They got to the graveyard just in time, all of those involved in the Haunted House trick had left several hours before to finish setting up and to run through another practice. Sally had never been through the catacombs before, and they were very dark—actually, they were pitch black. She wasn't sure if Jack could see in the dark, or if he just knew the way, because he seemed to know exactly where he was going and made good time too. Sally wasn't so lucky, stumbling behind him. She wasn't exactly scared of the dark—mostly because dark always had a bit of light in it if you just cared to find it, but this was a different kind of dark altogether. She wasn't sure she liked it. It reminded her too much of how Finklestien had given her awareness and hearing before sight or movement. A trapped kind of dark that made her uncomfortable. But all together, it was a relatively uneventful journey. She fell only three times, and only once required a minor repair job on her ankle, where the stitching had gotten caught on some sort of rock, though Jack said it was possible it was a bone. The dead in the catacombs weren't like the dead in Halloweentown. They were just dead, and stayed that way. He paused for a moment, then added, "unless Finklestien's experiment works. Then they might not stay dead." Sally tried not to think about that as they raced toward the dim light she could now see. They popped up through the grave, and she found herself in a cemetery much like the one at home. She laughed, and spun around, reveling in the newness of it all.

The sky was a deep blue, instead of the same grey color it always was in Halloweentown. The air was crisp and clear and, even though they were in a cemetery, smelt alive, with no trace of anything dead on the breeze. But she was glad too that they were in a cemetery, it made transitioning a bit easier than if they'd appeared somewhere totally unfamiliar.

Jack grinned at her under his pumpkin head, an image of the first time he saw her appearing unbidden in his minds eye. A flash of color in a drab and grey world. He paused, a bit startled by the thought. He didn't think Halloweentown was drab and boring did he? Of course not. But, he decided, it could do with some more color, nothing wrong with that. It was one of the things he liked about the Human world. Well, he didn't really like colors like pink or yellow….or light colors in general. But what would be so bad about getting some red, or dark blue or green into Halloweentown? A dark green, he amended, not a "pretty" green like grass was, no, that wouldn't fit at all. But a nice, dark, bluish-blackish green. Oh hush! The half of him that didn't care what the other residents of the Town would think. 'You know very well that you quite like grass green colors. You can't fool me.' Jack pushed the slightly rebellious voice to the back of his mind. Fine, he thought, I like the color, but that doesn't mean it would work back home.

He grabbed hold of Sally, and pointed up the hill, where the house stood, a dark smear against the night sky. Sally shared his excitement now, and all but dragged _him_ up the hill, instead of the other way around.

"Hey, you made it!" said a cheerful woman in a blood-spattered bridal gown. "I think you two are the last ones to get here!" Sally was surprised for a moment, but felt Jack touch her arm reassuringly. Of course, the woman was part of the show. She may have been human, but Jack seemed unsurprised by her presence. But as they passed, she gave an almost invisible bow, almost as a reflex. Sally realized that the woman wasn't human, not at all, but one of those non-citizens Jack had convinced to help him. She wasn't sure if the woman were actually a blood-spattered bride or a witch or something, but no matter what she was, she definitely looked human. Jack had chosen his staff well. Of course he had. He was the King of Halloween. That meant, that not only did he love the holiday, but he was the best at all the job of Pumpkin King implied, which includes the rather (in Sally's opinion) boring job of organizing everything.

The hostess was trying to act scary for the crowd, to set the mood, but she seemed to be having a difficult time keeping the smile off her face. But the humans were uncomfortable already, and as Sally listened to the words of the bloody bride, she began to understand why.

"The horrors of this house, are not what one usually sees in a haunted house." She tried to make a face of disgust, but her facial muscles couldn't seem to pull it off, and instead, her smile simply widened. "The things you will see today, are real. I know you probably hear that all the time, but in this case," she lowered her voice to a whisper, "it's true!" She giggled suddenly, and the sound was so out of place and girly, Sally almost laughed too. "There is a legend," continued the bride, "that this house was once owned by a rich young man called Lancaster. He brought his fiancé to live with him in his house—quite a scandal at the time, but they were in love. Or so she thought." She laughed again, but it wasn't so girlish this time, and much more menacing than funny. "The night before the wedding, she caught him with another woman. A woman more beautiful than her. A woman who was the bride to be's best friend and maid of honor" The bride's grin widened, and a wheezy laugh escaped through her tightly closed teeth. "They say she went mad! The next day, at the wedding, she hid a knife in her skirts, and when she approached the alter…."here the woman pulled out an old, bloodstained knife from some obscure pocket in her dress, and stabbed harshly at the two haystacks on either side of the door, laughing wildly as she did so. "The blood was everywhere! She stabbed and slashed," the woman acted out every word and continued "and soon both were dead, and they weren't screaming any more, but the rest of the church was, and over it all, the sound of her laughing could be heard!" her voice had risen to a fever pitch, and she let loose with a truly terrifying cackle, that made Sally's hair stand on end, but at the same time held her enthralled. Several of the humans looked quite terrified already. She was sure Jack had a pleased expression on under his pumpkin mask. "The woman returned to the house, having easily fled the police men who tried to arrest her. She went up to the tall tower, where, using the same knife she had used against her fiancé and friend, slit her own throat!" The woman lifted the knife to her throat and dragged it slowly across the flesh. Blood spurted out, getting on her gown. She stood there for a moment, hands outstretched, face tilted up, and then bowed suddenly, and rose grinning, no longer the manic grin she had worn when telling the story, and not quite the friendly grin she had seemed to have upon arrival, but something a bit in between. Jack started clapping. Sally followed suit, and pretty soon, the whole crowd was clapping and cheering. She understood what Jack was doing. The woman had been too good, and he didn't want anyone to leave just yet. The main event was still on the way. The woman bowed again.

"As I said before, the things you will see in this house are real. Be aware!" She said it so cheerfully though, that even Sally, who knew that the things in the house were very much real, almost felt as though nothing in the house could possibly be real at all. It was brilliant. Freak out the humans before they enter, get their nerves on edge. Give them a false calm with a hostess who did in fact warn them that everything was real, but in such a way that they wouldn't believe her—consciously anyway, and then, once inside, let the subconscious, and the parts of the brain that wanted to be scared take over. Once again, she was amazed at how well Jack could plan things in advance.

Jack himself had been a bit shocked that the Lady (as far as he knew, she had no other name) had been willing to share her story and act the part of hostess. He thought the knife bit went a bit too far in the reenactment, but he felt he had salvaged the situation, and she had taken the hint. But he didn't know how long she would play his way, which is why having her in the show had been a risk. She wasn't a citizen of Halloweentown because she was utterly uncontrollable. But she was also very, very good at what she did. Jack just hoped she wouldn't go overboard again, not until the end, at which point, he didn't care what she did. After she had killed herself, she had also lost her tangibility. She couldn't use her knife on anyone but herself. He did know that she could lure people into rivers and drown them that way, but there weren't any rivers around here, he had checked. And she had promised to be good and follow his instructions, in return, he would let her visit the town whenever she wanted. He hadn't let her in before because, as aforementioned, she was uncontrollable. But he agreed that he would let her visit whenever she wanted to, as long as she left by nightfall. However, if she didn't behave, Jack would have to retract his offer.

The Lady pushed open the door to the old house, and Sally was surprised when the door didn't squeak. It opened, clean and silent, and the group stared into the dark mouth of the house, yawning, like a creature big enough to swallow them all whole. It was definitely creepier than if the door had squeaked.

The hallway was long and straight, with doors on each side. The carpet was red, which Sally knew from the rehearsals, but in the gloom, it looked black. There was a chandelier strung with cobwebs, and two spiders that Sally could see, peeking down on them from on high. She knew they were real, though the humans, if they looked, would assume them to be fake. The door slammed shut as the last person entered the room. There was almost no light now, and a cold wind rushed through the hallway, tugging at their clothes.

"Whoooooo coooommmmmeesss?" asked a raspy voice. The wind started up again, but this time, a huge face, twisted and bloody rushed toward them. "Whoooo Coooommmes?" It's mouth opened wide as it swooped down upon them….and disappeared. The group started laughing, as several of them, who had thrown themselves to the floor, slowly got up. But even Jack had ducked. This was going to be fun. It seemed that there would be surprises. Or, if not surprises, then things would happen that hadn't been practiced. Jack probably knew what was going to happen, and when, but if he had never seen it before, he could act his part all the better.

The group slowly made their way down the hallway, a ghost swooping in from time to time, cackling or making ghostly noises. It was all for show of course, and Sally had to bite her tongue from time to time to keep from laughing as a ghost walked through the wall moaning "oooooooooooo". The hostess pushed open one of the many doors lining the hall way, and something large and hairy leapt out at the assembled audience, growling menacingly until the hostess brandished the knife at it, whereupon it whimpered and scampered away, pausing at the end of the hallway to turn and growl again, then turned and ran through another open door. Several people had screamed when the wolf had jumped through the door, and some were still shaking. "That was a werewolf," said the hostess cheerfully. "My knife is made of silver, so he won't attack us, at least, as long as I am here!" She laughed. They entered the room. Blood was everywhere. Sally could tell by the smell of it that it wasn't real, but it certainly looked real. A man lay moaning in a cage by the wall, covered in blood. It was unclear to Sally if it was his blood that was supposedly all over the walls, but when they approached the cage (it was next to the door, they had no choice in the matter, though a few of the humans looked a bit squeamish about all the blood), he leapt up suddenly, throwing himself against the cage, screaming madly. Not screams of fear or pain, but screams of rage. He hurled himself against the cage wall, holding a huge gash in his stomach. Where had Jack found all these people? Her rehearsals had mostly centered on the end of the tour, when her part came in. She hadn't seen the rest of the house as it looked now. The decorating crew from Halloweentown had truly outdone themselves. As had Jack. It bothered her a bit that she couldn't see his face, but she was pretty sure he was proud of himself under that huge pumpkin head.

The caged man reached out and grabbed someone by the arm as they passed, and the girl screamed hysterically. The man let go immediately, but Jack snapped his fingers, and the man, who had looked like he was about to apologize, started laughing instead, grabbing out again, but, Sally noticed, not as enthusiastically as before. He seemed to be trying to avoid actually touching anyone. She later learned that, even though he was dead—a murder victim that Jack had managed to convince to join his Haunted House, was actually a very polite man, and hated scaring anyone. His disapproval of using his, in Jack's opinion, rather significant gifts at inspiring fear and shock, was why he didn't live in Halloweentown. He visited from time to time, but the emphasis on Halloween and scaring people in the town, made him uncomfortable, so he never stayed long. But he had agreed to scare people for just the one night, and so, with difficulty, he bit back his apology to the girl he had grabbed, and, once the group passed through his room, began simply stewing in his guilt. Eventually, he got antsy and began cleaning up. He had been rather fastidious in life, and it had gotten worse after his death. He began cleaning the walls rather vigorously, righting the furniture, and just straightening up. Soon, it looked no different than a very normal living room, apart from the large cage near the door, but there wasn't much he could do about that.

(I only mention the cleaned room, because when the crowd passed through the room again, they were confused as to how it got so clean and perfect in the first place, with the caged man, who had been naked from the waist up, sitting, fully clothed in the armchair reading a book. However, it freaked the people out, because it made them question their sanity a bit, so Jack hadn't said anything. He had known about that particular man's cleanliness issues when he hired him, which he had only done because of the gaping wound in his stomach. Ok, back to the haunted house….)

They went through room after room, seeing skeletons and vampires and ghosts of all kinds. There were several creatures that Sally recognized from Halloweentown, and one corpse with and axe in his head tried to wave to her, but the Harlequin devil yanked on the axe and turned him around. As soon as Sally was out of his sightline, the axe head forgot all about her, and became absolutely fascinated with a picture on the wall that, for some inexplicable reason, depicted a shepherd girl with a bunch of sheep surrounding her. It was so completely out of place that Sally had to stare at it for a few moments to assure herself that she wasn't seeing things. They went through a room where a witch was boiling a cauldron of some spell or other, and she fed it to a young boy tied up near her. He turned into a crow, and the witch, as Sally passed, winked at her, and Sally recognized her through the layers of make up she wore, as Gertrude, the witch Finklestien liked. The crow, for in all probability it was actually a crow and not a boy, and the potion Gertrude had given it made it turn back to its natural form, bobbled happily from a string around its leg, cawing with pleasure at having wings again. It hadn't liked being a person. But the humans, its crowing sounded ominous and mournful, and they huddled closer together, probably without realizing they were doing it. Room after room the passed through, watching vampires feed, and birds feasting on whatever fleshy bits remained on skeletons (though actually, there were no fleshy bits left, Jack had somehow gotten hold of spam and stuck it to the bare bones, and then let the crows have their way. Most of the skeletons weren't real, but those that wore, though they quivered, and bounced as though in agony, they quite enjoyed the experience, to the point where they asked Jack if they could do it again, and soon. They got to the top of the house, after several scares on the staircase where the creature under the stairs grabbed at a man's ankle, the eyes of the pictures followed them, and the walls seemed to breathe. Just then, from a door at the end of the hall, came a dark chuckle, and a cold voice.

"You dare come here? After what you've done?" The bride froze, and lifted her knife, as a door opened and two figures emerged. Both were beautifully dressed, but were stained with blood, and gaping wounds still sluggishly bled a little. Their faces were gaunt, eyes wide, bones peeking through in some places on their bodies. They were absolutely brilliant zombies.

"You betrayed me!" She shrieked, brandishing the knife, but sounding frightened. "I'll kill you again!"

"Impossible. But I will make you regret you ever even met me. I will show you a fate worse than the death you brought upon all of us." He reached her, and the man and woman zombies picked her up and then, all of them whooshed down the stairs and disappeared. That is when Sally realized that they hadn't been zombies at all, but ghosts, otherwise, there is no way the groom and his mistress could have touched the Lady. She learned later that the two 'zombies' were actually members of a different wedding party almost a century after the Lady's disastrous wedding, and had been killed in a car wreck on the way to the reception. Sally had been quite impressed by the Lady's acting.

But the humans were now a bit shocked. Their tour guide was gone, seemingly impossibly abducted. "Remember what she said?" said Sally suddenly, "about that werewolf not being able to hurt us while she was here? Because of the knife?" Several members of the group murmured and nodded.

"Oh come off it!" snapped a man dressed as a vampire. "You don't actually believe any of that crap do you? These people rehearse these things for weeks! They have been setting up this house for a while! Nothing's gonna…."he stopped when a cold voice echoed out of the darkness.

"Hungry. Smell blood. Meat!" The wolf crawled out of a darkened doorway, creeping toward them. "Want EAT!" he roared. Sally knew him well, knew this part, knew what to do.

"Oh god," she murmured. "The knife!" She shrieked, pushing through the crowd. "Is it up there?" she was at the front now, in front of everyone, making all appearances of searching for the silver knife. The cynical vampire rolled his eyes.

"You seriously are dense you know that? It isn't even real!" But just as he said the words, the wolf leapt at Sally knocking her down. He growled in her face and she screamed. He grabbed her arm in his mouth, and tore. It made a horrible ripping sound, and Sally grabbed at her torn arm, crushing the blood berries she had hidden there earlier, they popped easily, and sticky red liquid poured out of her arm stump. The wolf buried his nose in her stomach growling and making chewing noises. What he was actually doing, was popping the berries she had hidden there, tearing her dress a bit, but making it look like he was eating her. She screamed and twitched, before finally lying still. When the wolf turned to the rest of the crowd, they were utterly terrified. What kind of Haunted House was this? Blood berry juice dripped from the wolf's snout as he advanced. They tried to turn and run, but were blocked by Jack.

He started to laugh, cackling madly. He tore off his cloak, revealing his inhumanely thin body, and ripped the jack-o-lantern off his head, still laughing. The people were faced with the skeleton man himself. The wolf growled, and they turned to see Sally, standing up, sewing her arm back on and giving them a slightly manic grin. "Happy Halloween," she whispered. Jack grabbed the railing and used it to propel himself over the crowd and stand next to her. The three of them, skeleton, rag doll, and werewolf advanced. The crowd of humans turned and fled down the stairs. Jack collapsed against Sally, still laughing. His natural laugh was a sort of terrifying cackle in and of itself, and Sally had to admit that it had been a lot of fun. Both of them fell into renewed giggles when they heard the bride at the door say "thank you come again next year!" happily to the frightened humans as they left.

Jack was quite pleased with how everything had turned out. His gambles in using non-citizens had paid off quite nicely, and Sally had been amazing. She was a natural! He had loved her ad lib of 'happy Halloween.' It had been inspired! He told her so several times on the way back to Halloweentown. He was practically gushing. He offered to take her with him on some of his other stops around the Halloween celebrating world, but she was content to just go back to town for the night. She was tired, and though it had been fun, she wasn't sure she really wanted to do it again. Jack had sighed, but nodded as he dropped her off in the Halloweentown graveyard. She was surprised to find that almost no time had passed at all. "The tunnels are out of time," Jack explained. "We enter one, and pop out on the other end at the exact time we went in. And on Halloween, everything is slower. As long as it is Halloween Day here, it is in the human world too. It is how we can get everywhere all on one night, often at seemingly the same time." Sally hadn't understood, but then again, Jack didn't really get it either. Dr. Finklestien claims to understand, but he is probably lying. He certainly never bothers to explain it to anyone else, simply looks all superior whenever he is asked, and says that if he were to explain it, it takes an intellect such as his to understand, and if they had an intellect such as his, he wouldn't need to explain. Sally and Jack were both pretty sure that he was just as lost as the rest of them when it came to the timing of things.

The celebrations that night in Halloweentown, after everything was over were the loudest they'd ever been. They were so loud, that the noises carried over in some places to the Human world, and several stories about haunted woods were born. Jack was happy and satisfied. They probably would never do another haunted house, but it had given him some new ideas for future Halloweens. And Sally, though she felt she didn't want to go out scaring on Halloween anymore, at least not to the extent she had in the House, did want to experience the human world again, with it's clear air and bright colors. She had enjoyed designing the costumes and make up for herself, Jack, and several of the others who had been at the house. She would do that any time. Jack knew that she wasn't really interested in scaring humans so much as exploring their world, but he was willing to work on her—he had a whole year to convince her that scaring people was better than exploring any day. He was sure he could do it. And he might have too, except for what happened next.

Dunn dunn dunn! The story is winding down guys. I think two more chapters maybe, to get us to the point where the move starts. This is a rather Sally-centric chapter, and I hope ya'll are cool with her characterization. I don't think Jack really cares too much about harming humans psychologically, even though he doesn't want any physically harmed. I just don't think he understands that people can be mentally scarred too. But I think the people from the haunted house will be ok, once it is light and they can rationalize again. But I don't think they'll be doing Haunted houses again any time soon. Anyway, hope you liked, Review por favor. And Gracias.


	7. Chapter 7

Wow. This took forever to put up. I am really sorry about that, but I had writers block like you wouldn't believe. This chapter is long, and a bit sad I think, but it takes us right up to the movie. I think it is done, but if some things are still a bit confusing, I will put up another chapter to explain a bit, or finish it up if need be. I am also planning a series of one shots of Jack and Sally not included in this story, mostly because they are just fun little one shots where nothing much happens. I might also put up an epilogue chapter of this story which takes place during the movie. Please review, and if you have questions, comments, suggestions, demands, whatever, don't hesitate to ask. Thanks for being patient!

It started out as a routine recon mission. Jack often sent out people at certain points throughout the year to get information on happenings in the human world. It helped him plan out Halloweens. To figure out what was scary this year, how his last Halloween had panned out, that sort of thing. It was something he had started when he became Pumpkin King. It had always worked well in the past, sending those of his people that could pass for humans to get the feel of the Human World. But his people had started disappearing. He wasn't sure why, and the watch pool was dark. It wasn't giving him any sort of proper readings or insights as to why his people were going missing. It showed him image after image of the human world, but nothing of the citizens of the town. Three Vampires and two Witches had never reported in at their appointed times, and we was starting to worry.

"I don't understand it Sally. Nothing like this has ever happened before!" He clutched his head with bony fingers. If he had hair, Sally was pretty sure he would be ripping it out. He paced back and forth in his little room, frantic. "If the humans had killed them, or found them out or something-which incidentally, has happened-the Looking Pool would find them. But I look and look, and they are just…..gone. There is nothing. I can see places in the Human World—Oh! I have figured out how to make Mirrors reversible, isn't that fun? Now, I can look at a Human in a the Human World from the looking pool, and they see MY face in a Mirror instead of theirs! It's brilliant! And, if I hit the Looking Pool in the right way, I can crack their mirror!" He laughed, momentarily distracted. "There's a guy in America-Connecticut? Kentucky? One of those, humans have confusing names for things-calls me "Mr. Unlucky." Apparently, humans have a superstition that a broken mirror is unlucky. I sort of remember learning about that in school. Anyway, I have broken all of his mirrors. Even the ones in his car. He was my test subject." He sighed, thinking with pleasure about the unfortunate man in Connecticut or Kentucky had given him such a fantastic nickname.

Sally didn't say anything. Honestly, she was just relieved he wasn't stressing about his missing people anymore. He really was easily distracted, she marveled. He could be a nervous wreck on moment, and the next jabbering on about a great new way of scaring people. It was uncanny, Jack's ability to flip flop moods in the blink of an eye. He began pacing again, apparently remembering why he got on the subject of the Looking Pool.

"But where could they be? They can't have just disappeared! There aren't any places they could have disappeared to! There is here and the Human World, and I can't find them in the human world and I would sense them if they were in Town. I have sent people looking for them on the outskirts, sent out feelers to our friends outside town, but no one has seen anything." Sally sighed.

"Look Jack, I know you are worried, but it is possible that something totally innocent way laid them. Maybe they got lost or something." Jack glared at her.

"ALL of them? Impossible."

"Improbably maybe. Nothing is impossible." Jack would have rolled his eyes had he any. As it were, he informed her that he was mentally doing so. Sally did it physically. Then she stuck out her tongue. Jack chuckled a bit, allowing Sally's sillyness to calm him down a fraction.

"Seriously Jack, if you don't calm down, you'll be useless in finding them. You have to keep a clear mind." She absently stirred her pond sludge tea.

"I am going to go after them," said Jack suddenly. "I should have gone as soon as Hestia disappeared. I should have known then that something was wrong."

"Hestia was the first to disappear," Sally pointed out. "There is no way you could have known that something was wrong from one slightly flighty Witch not checking in at the right time. Remember? Everyone just sort of thought that she forgot, and was going to report in when she got home. No one saw this coming. You aren't omniscient."

"Ooh, good word." Jack sighed. "I should be though. I am the Pumpkin King. I should be able to know these things. If I can't keep my subjects safe, what good am I?"

"Well, you gave the humans a smashing good Halloween Jack. And there is the whole thing with the mirrors." She took a last long drag from her tea.

"Yes, yes. But too many people have disappeared. I am going myself." Sally frowned. That was a bad idea, she was sure of it.

"But…you don't exactly fit in. You don't look human. Even if you wear a cloak or something, someone could still get a look at you. That's why you send your human looking people to do recon."

"Well, now they are disappearing. I don't know why we didn't just use the Watch pool."

"Because you can't use that to see how people react to something not going on at that very moment. You need to have people out there to ask around. You explained that years ago to everyone."

"Well, maybe it needs to stop. It is clearly too dangerous. I am going to go find those people and bring them back and then find new ways of finding out how the Humans liked our Halloweens." Sally sighed, the feeling of foreboding lodging tightly in her chest. She looked down, glance falling on the pond sludge in the bottom of the cup that gave the tea its flavor. Was there….a picture in the sludge? She peered closely. It was a skull. Weird. She shook the cup. The picture shifted. It now depicted a prostate body in the foreground and the skull….she blinked as, bizarrely, the cup flared into color, what looked like flames enveloping the skull and body on the ground underneath it. She could feel the heat on her face, and she dropped the cup in shock and fear. She might not have a beating heart, but she considered herself alive, and fire was one of the few things she was sure would kill her forever. She also knew from experience that flames were the only thing that could hurt her. Nothing else hurt, but flames, licking at her skin and her hair, devouring her slowly….she had nightmares of being burned. The worst she had ever received had been a small burn on her finger when she had been making Dr. Finkelstien's dinner once-a small flame had leapt out of the oven and burned her. She managed to put the fire out quickly, but she had had to get a new finger. Fire spread quickly on her body and the damage was irreversible. And painful.

"Sally! Sally!" She was dimly aware of Jack's voice cutting through the fog in her brain. "Sally!"

"Jack, what….what just happened?"

"I don't know you just…started staring at the cup and then you screamed and dropped it on the floor." She blinked.

"I think….it may have been a premonition."

"I don't know Sally. I never really believed in those. I have yet to see one come true. Ever. And I have lived a long time. There aren't even any credible stories about premonitions coming true."

"Listen Jack, I think this was real. Please, listen. Don't go searching for those people. Keep looking for them by other means, but please, please don't go looking yourself. It will end in death. I fear….yours."

"Sally,"

"You're my best friend Jack. My first friend in this town. I...I," she paused, as if steeling her self to say something. She sighed, looked away, then back into Jack's eyes. "I care for you Jack. I don't want to lose you."

"Oh, Sally," he said softly, gently caressing her face in a large bony hand. "I care for you too. I promise I'll be safe."

"Please don't go Jack."

"I have to go. It is my responsibility."

"Then let me go with you. Two sets of eyes are better than one, and I can pass as human easier than you. Any disguise you can come up with won't hold up under and even cursory glance. I can get away with it more. By the time anyone tried to get a second look, I could be away." Jack sighed.

"I don't know. It could be dangerous."

"If you don't let me go with you I won't let you go either. I know some really good poisons now. I could knock you out for a week," she threatened. "And you'll never know when to expect it. It could be anywhere, anytime. But you will NOT leave this place without me." Jack laughed.

"OK, OK then. You can come. You are right. Two heads are better than one." Jack grabbed a traveling cloak and then tossed on to Sally. "Ready?" In answer, she pulled the cloak around herself. Jack gave a skeletal grin. "Excellent. Let's go."

He had a secret passageway out of his house. It was necessary, being such a celebrity in the Town. He couldn't always go out the front way, especially if he didn't want to be accosted by admiring citizens, booby traps, or people with "ideas" for the next Halloween, or the Mayor. Especially the Mayor, if he was being honest. Which he tried not to be when making lists of People I Do Not Want to Talk To. Actually, he was honest with himself about it, but when he wrote down the lists (as you do when extremely bored), he enjoyed lying. It gave him a very good idea of who snuck into his house and poked around. The Mayor was one of those people. As was the Witch Harriet actually. Both of them gave him a Bat Ball for his Deathday presents. It was number one on his Things I Want For My Deathday list. Sally, who actually really knew him, got him a new spider scream doorbell and a Rat Tail lasso. She had noticed his old one wearing thin and his screaming doorbell was less of a scream of total terror and more a gasp of surprise and agitation.

Sally and Jack pushed their way out of a dying tree just beyond the edge of town. "Wonderful!" said Jack cheerfully. "Time to find my people!" They let the fog swallow them, covering their entrance into the graveyard. As they made their way toward one of the gravestones leading to the human world, Sally felt a cold hand grip hers and yank her into a dark hole that neither she nor Jack had noticed. She let out a scream as she was pulled head over heels into a dark, cramped space, then dragged along at alarming speed. She tried to get her free hand over to her captive one to release the stitching and escape, but she was scooped up and held by the waist, face pressed against an odd feeling fabric, arms and legs trapped by the powerful embrace. "No, no, no" a voice in her ear hissed. Literally, it sounded a bit like a snake was talking. "Not tonight. Tonight, my dear Sally Ragdoll, Jack Skellington watches you die."

Jack couldn't move for a moment, frozen in shock. Sally was gone, just disappeared into the ground. Was this what had happened to the others? Sucked into the ground with barely enough time to scream? If that were true, it wasn't so surprising that he couldn't find them in the human world, and if someone had booby trapped the cemetery and was hiding them somewhere, it would make sense that none of his contacts had seen anything. He still couldn't sense them, which was weird, but not impossible, if they were far enough away. 'Or dead' came a soft voice at the back of his mind. He ignored it. Jack had many talents, and one was an impressive ability to delude himself for as long as was necessary. He called it optimism. Sally called it being impossibly thick.

Jack bent to inspect the ground where Sally had disappeared. He found the hole quickly, so fast, in fact, that he wasn't sure how he had missed it in the first place. Carefully, he lowered himself into the hole and dropped to the bottom, landing spiderlike on the earthen floor below. He focused, trying to see if he could hear or sense anything that might lead him to Sally. There was nothing but stale air. The tunnel however, seemed to simply be a straight shot to wherever the person who had taken Sally had gone. Jack could see just as well in the dark as he could in the light, and as far as he could tell, there were no offshoots or bends in the tunnel at all. It made a certain amount of sense, he supposed, if no one was supposed to follow the kidnapper.

'Well, too bad for you,' thought Jack, and he began to make his way quickly down the tunnel. He paid close attention, trying desperately to sense something-any sound, breath of air, anything-that might lead him to Sally and the others. He dared not shout or make his presence known, slipping silently through the inky blackness of the tunnel. He needn't have cautioned. The kidnapper knew he was there. In fact, that was the whole point. He wanted Jack to find him, and he wanted Jack to be broken by what he found. The kidnapper cracked a grin as he watched Jack trying to be invisible.

"So many eyes Jack," he whispered. "You can't hide from them. They are always watching." He glanced at Sally. "They all report to me of course. Sometimes, they are even a part of me." Sally glared.

"He is coming for me. You won't get away with this."

"Oooh, how cliché. But you are wrong. I will win. You, my dear, are the prize. I knew he'd come eventually, if his people kept disappearing." He waved a rather shapeless arm at the room around them. Five skeletons hung on the wall behind him. He wiggled the arm for a moment, allowing fingers to appear briefly, and snapped. The skeletons immediately jerked to life, wiggling and jerking about on their chains. "They are dead," he said sounding pleased. "Dead, but animated. They look like they're dancing don't they?" Sally paused, then nodded. They did, a bit. "But they aren't. They are in pain, forever and ever!" He laughed, a dark, cold sound. "As you shall be Ragdoll!" He grabbed the candle that had been on the table nearby and carefully held it to the stitching on her leg. Sally screamed, her cries of pain and terror joining the echoes of the skeletons on the wall, caught forever in a state of pain and torture.

Jack heard the screams, and, abandoning caution flew down the corridor towards the sound. The room appeared with so little warning that Jack was so surprised that he stopped dead in his tracks so suddenly that he nearly toppled head over heels, which would have been quite embarrassing and made a terrible impression on the inhabitants in the room. As it was, it wouldn't have mattered too much, as the only person in the room capable of observing Jack's entrance was the kidnapper. Jack didn't even notice him at first, his whole world completely filled by the view of Sally's charred and nearly unrecognizable body lying motionless on the floor.

"NO!" He was at her side in a moment. Her eyes were closed, and her body was horrible burned. One of her legs was completely gone, the other burned to the knee. Her hair was singed black, the lovely red shade non existent. Her face was grey, and streaked with black burn marks. Her left arm was remarkably perfect, completely untouched by fire. "Sally, Sally, can you hear me?"

"Well, well, well, what have we here?"

"Oogie," growled Jack, whirling to face the boogy man. "What have you done?"

"I have got you Jack. You stole everything from me, so now, I am returning the favor. She won't wake."

"You killed her!" Oogie grinned, showing a mouthful of stickbug teeth.

"Not quite. Not really possible to kill her is it? But she will never be Sally again. She will stay that way forever!" He laughed. "How does it feel Jack? Does it make you angry? Sad? How do you like it when someone takes your whole world from you?"

"Everything you lost was your own fault! You're sick enjoyment of pain is why you lost everything!"

"No Jack, I lost everything because of YOU. Because of you, I am forced to live in squalor, apart forever. No one will come near me because they fear risking your wrath. I am starving Jack! Wasting away! I was born to frighten people, it is the reason for my existence, and you took it away! This is your fault, and so, you brought this upon yourself. If you had been a bit kinder, maybe this wouldn't have happened." Oogie was in Jack's face now, smirking at Jack's furious glare.

The pumpkin king was shaking with fury. He knew, on some level, that Oogie Boogie was insane, and that blaming Jack for his troubles was just him being crazy, but Sally was irrevocably injured, and Jack wondered on some level, if maybe this was his fault. It would probably paralyze him later, but for now, it just made him angry. Without warning, he launched himself at Oogie Boogie, the force of it carrying the two of them half way across the room. Jack dug a bony finger into the eye socket of Oogie's tightly woven spider-silk suit, ripping it open. Oogie screamed in pain and fury. He hurled Jack away from him, causing the Skeleton Man to smash into the wall with an audible crunch. He collapsed on the floor, but pushed himself up rather quickly. He grabbed a chain from the floor, one obviously used for torture, Jack thought, noting the sharp hook at the end. The hook was they only part of the chain not rusting actually. He hurled himself toward Oogie again, who, displaying an agility at complete odds with his size and shape, easily side stepped. He pressed a foot onto a seemingly harmless stone, which, of course, was anything but harmless. Robotic zombies burst from the floor stalking toward Jack with guns longer than his arms. They encircled him, took aim, and fired. They all missed. Well, technically, they all missed Jack, who leapt into the air and landed on top of one of the Zombie shooters before vaulting himself at Oogie once again. Each of the bullets found a target though, lodging themselves firmly into the robot across from the shooter. Oogie made a note to remember not to ever have his Robot Shooters encircle the intended victim ever again. A row would be better, just a straight firing squad. As it was, the bullets completely disabled the robots, leaving them riddled with bullet holes and smoking slightly. He leapt away from Jack's assault, hitting another pressure pad with his hand. Spears began flying out of the walls at impossible speeds. Luckily for Jack, he was even more agile than Oogie, and being considerably thinner, he avoided each spear through a series of gravity defying flips and twists and turns. "Hahaha! Nice try Oogie, but you'll have to do better than that to skewer me!" He jumped at Oogie again, who, once again, evaded Jack neatly. Jack hit the wall again, but instead of smashing into it, he caught himself and held on, insect like, with a bony hand, the other still clutching the hook and chain, then pushed off with both feet, giving himself twice as much momentum when he flew at Oogie. The boogey man just barely got out of the way, and gave a triumphant laugh as Jack sailed past him. Jack landed neatly, and spun, facing Oogie. He picked up a discarded spear and advanced.

"You think you can spear me?" laughed Oogie. He took two steps backwards, and promptly fell over the long chain that was now behind him. Jack was on him in a flash, giving the chain a sharp yank, and trapping Oogie's foot inside a rusting circle. He hooked the chain to a bit of frayed cloth at the base of Oogie's neck and pointed the spear at his stomach. Oogie was unmoving. Jack's empty eyes still seemed to convey a whole slew of emotions, loss, sadness, pain. But mostly an intense hate-fueled rage. Jack poked Oogie with the spear. "You will regret this Oogie. You will regret it for as long as you live. This is the third time I have beaten you. Don't let it happen again, or I will destroy you. Forever."

"You can't. As long as even one of my bugs survives, I can create myself anew. All of my bugs have a shared consciousness, and they are all equally me." Jack leaned in close.

"Believe me, I will end you," he said in a low voice, touching the spear to just below Oogie's throat. Jack backed away, keeping the spear pointed squarely at Oogie's rather sizable middle. He reached the far end of the room, where the chain was hooked to a pulley system, and yanked the lever, and watched as Oogie was hoisted into the air by the neck, his foot getting pulled up his back. Jack watched in silence, unmoving as the Spider Silk suit Oogie used to keep himself together started to unravel, bugs spilling out, going everywhere. This was a bit of a surprise to Jack, he hadn't known Oogie was actually made of bugs. As the creatures scattered, Jack realized what Oogie had meant by "his" bugs.

"If it were anyone else…."well, to be honest, if it were anyone else, Jack would probably use them all the time. As it was…Jack didn't even want to finish the thought. Work could wait. Right now, Sally was what was important. He crouched beside her, fingering her charred hair. He remembered the first time he had met her, crouching very like he was now, having just scared her, accidentally for once. He had insisted she call him Jack, and had taunted Finklestien and hidden her from her creator. He touched her face with a bony finger. "Sally," he whispered. "Sally, can you hear me?" She didn't move. Whatever force had kept her animated seemed to have been removed. He ran a finger over her body, missing every limb that was no longer there. "Oh, Sally. I am so sorry. It's all my fault. My fault. Oh, what have I done?" Some part of his mind said that he was being ridiculous, that this was entirely Oogie's fault, because the former boogie man (buggy man-interjected the part of his mind that was either still in shock, or just plain sick and insensitive) was absolutely insane. 'Shut up,' Jack told the logical side of his mind. "would he have gone after anyone if it weren't for his hatred of me? No! Now go away." The logical side of his mind responded that the only reason Oogie hated Jack was because Jack had punished him based on the laws of Halloweentown, which Oogie had broken because he was INSANE. And a psychopath. Jack once again ignored his logical mind, and buried his head in bony hands, slumping entirely to the floor.

This wasn't Sally. Not this broken shell in front of him. Sally was all dancing and laughter and brightness. She was so….un-Halloweentown, but Jack loved that about her. He found it odd that he liked that she was so very different than anything else he held dear, but she kept him refreshed, entertained, and in line. She was the girl who had danced in the graveyard after escaping Finklestien for the first time, the girl who had nursed him and cleaned his house after he had those wacky hallucinations about very small creatures needing to get someplace quite high. She had wanted to know about them.

"They are small," he whispered. "Impossibly small. There are quite a lot of them, and they are odd colors. Blue and green and purple. They are fuzzy, which is just….well. You would like them, you know, if they existed. I dreamed them up years ago, before I was Pumpkin King. Before I ever even tasted Holy Water. They were a childhood fancy, one I never told anyone about. Nice things have no place here. I named them after me. I was young you see, and wanted some appreciation. They gave it to me, in my mind, at night, before I fell asleep. I would sort of, recount the day to myself, and imagine their little voices telling me I was clever, that I did the right things, that I had such good ideas. They were Nice, and Cute, see, because there aren't anything like that here, and I like things that are new and different. I always liked heights, always. And rickety structures that looked like they might fall any second. Look at my house!" he gave a small chuckle. "I guess, at that party, the first time, I started talking about them, those silly jackernickels. And I decided, 'hell, they are part of me, and I like impossibly high things, so they do too! And it isn't fair that just I get to be at a party, so they must get to the party on the chandelier!' I don't know where the mufflisally's come from. They are red and blueish. The perfect size for a friend to a jackernickel. It isn't fair to separate them. So they were going to the party too, that's when you came in. That's the story Sally. The whole thing. I told you I'd tell you." He couldn't breath suddenly. He looked around the dungeon. Dimly, he noticed the skeletons still hanging on the wall. He thought he knew what had happened to his other people. He was sorry for them of course, but for the moment, he was still trying to get around the idea that he would never see his best friend again.

But….if Finklestien did it once….Jack carefully picked up Sally's still form, and slowly began making his way out of the room, taking care to step on every single bug he could find. Oogie Boogie's warning rang in his ears. As long as the bugs survived, so could Oogie. If Oogie could come back, maybe so could Sally, but if she couldn't, Jack was determined that Oogie never would.

It took him a long time, but he finally got to Finkelstiens castle.

"Help me, please," he gasped out, when the door finally creaked open.

"What have you done?" shrieked the doctor.

"It was Oogie. He wanted to hurt me, so he did it through my subjects, and people I care about. But can you fix her?" Finklestien motioned for Jack to come inside, and put Sally on the table. Finklestien examined her carefully.

"Yes. But it will take a while. And I don't want her near you Jack. She won't be safe." Jack nodded. As long as she was alive.

"Keep her the same way Finklestien. Don't you change her at all. Not one bit. Except for tonight. If you can restore her memories, do it, but not those of tonight. But Dr, you'd better keep her as she is. Or I will be very, very displeased with you." Jack glared so impressively, that for once, Finklestien decided that Jack did quite deserve to be the Pumpkin King. I do hope, that Jack was stretching the truth a bit, exaggerating, but, after what he had just done to Oogie, it is hard to be sure.

Finklestien decided not to call Jack's bluff in this case, which was probably wise, and he nodded. "And try to keep her away from me too. I can stay away from her if I know it will protect her, but I want you to make sure she doesn't get to close again." The doctor nodded once more.

"Before you go Jack my dear boy, here is something for the pain." He produced a small vial from a hidden compartment in his chair, and handed it to Jack. The skeleton man took it, and nodded at the doctor. Finklestien watched as the bony man slowly trudged down the hill to the town. Something stirred in his mostly dead heart. Pity. It was an uncomfortable feeling. But he felt bad for Jack, as the King had obviously liked Sally. He would recreate his rag doll girl, but he would try and keep her away from Jack. For once the two of them were on the same page, and the Doctor resolved to be kinder to Jack in the future. Well, if not kinder, maybe just less hostile. He liked Jack sometimes, he would just have to try and like him more often, that was all. The pity feeling was less intense, now just sort of tucked away in a corner of his mind to be forgotten about. He turned to face the body of Sally the ragdoll. Time to begin.

The potion Finklestien had given Jack did just as the doctor had promised, It took away the pain. Jack remembered what had happened to Sally, but it seemed more like a story, or that it had happened long ago. He remembered her in fondness, and he sort of knew that Finklestien was remaking her, but for the most part, he was able to concentrate on everything else he had to do for the town. Sometimes, he had wild bouts of depression that he didn't quite understand. He grew bored with everything that used to excite him. He felt that something was missing, though he wasn't sure what it was, and it ate him up inside. He found himself thinking about Sally from time to time, but always managed to stop himself before he got too far down that train of thought. It was probably the potion, not allowing him to think of things that might cause him pain, but Jack didn't quite understand it, and that frustrated him. He felt lost and alone. The constant lonely ache deep inside himself didn't help matters either. His Halloweens were still fantastic, but he just didn't care anymore. He adopted a ghost dog that he called Zero, but that only helped for a short time. He loved Zero, and the two were soon inseparable, but the empty feeling soon returned, Jack found himself staring into space more and more often, images of Sally sometimes drifting into his mind, but just as quickly banished, and he never remembered thinking of her later. But, as a few years went by, he stared more and more often at Finklestien's castle, as though waiting for something to happen.

Repairing Sally was no easy task. Sure, she was partly rags, but she was also bits of flesh, which were hard to get. After the body was made anew (and he had to be careful that she was identical, otherwise Jack would be angry…if he remembered to be, anyway, and Finklestien wasn't willing to risk it), the doctor still had to ensure her brain still worked, and that the force animating her could be resurrected. Once she was awake again, he had to teach her anew how to walk, talk, eat—he had to essentially start from scratch. Memories slowly came back to her. She remembered how to sew one dreary afternoon, and she patched up several holes in her dress. She remembered how to run, how to cook, which plants were poisonous and which ingredients were useful in hiding the smell and taste of poison. For a while, she couldn't remember why she knew these things, but that too came back to her. She saw him out the window one night, the skeleton man, and she remembered him. It had been years she knew, since she had seen him last. She heard the celebrations every year after Halloween of course, but she hadn't seen him. Finklestien kept her in the basement usually. She had snuck out that night, knowing that the doctor was in his lab and wouldn't notice if she left her basement room for a while. She saw Jack, and remembered.

She remembered meeting him in the graveyard, learning the poisons so she could sneak out, cleaning up after him when he got drunk, the haunted house….and then…a sort of blankness. She assumed there had been an accident. She decided that she didn't want to know, but she did want to see him again, and soon. A small voice in the back of her mind niggled at her though. "Why hasn't he come to see me?" she wondered. "I would have gone to see him, if there was an accident, and he were hurt." She frowned, trying to remember, to fill in the blanks where her memory stopped. People had gone missing….she and Jack had gone into the graveyard….she thought she remembered something about dancing skeletons, but she passed that off as a dream.

Finkelstein caught her of course, but he was surprisingly lenient about her being out of the basement. He decided it was time she moved back into her old room, but she still wasn't allowed out of the house. She supposed she understood, he had always been over protective, but ever since she had woken up, stiff, unable to move and without her memory, he had been worse than ever. She supposed she was lucky, that she had regained all her memories and abilities back, though Finklestien told her she was better than before, that he had made her entirely fireproof, which she supposed was kind of him, she had never liked fire much.

Whenever she asked him if she could go outside, he simply replied, "you are not ready" and he would tell her to go clean something. She obeyed, she always obeyed. But she planned as well.

Finally, on one Halloween night, she put her plan into action. She dosed the Doctor with Deadly Nightshade and slipped out of the house. She arrived in town just as the festivities went into full swing. She ducked out of sight, watching in fascination as the Halloweentowner's sang and danced. The Hanging Tree was new, she assumed it was one of Jack's ideas. She wasn't quite ready to make her return to Halloweentown society. She had mostly spent time with Jack and the witches, and she didn't want anyone to ask questions tonight.

Suddenly, Jack was there, dancing as a flaming pumpkin on top of a wooden horse before diving into the fountain, rising slow and straight as if he did that sort of thing everyday. She clapped with the rest of the town, smiling. It was just so typically Jack. Always a showman, he grinned and waved and leapt around manically. Everyone started gathering around, congratulating him and flirting and well, brownnosing honestly. Sally frowned. That wasn't at all what Jack needed. Or wanted. It was an excellent show to be fair, but his best yet? Hardly. It was practically old hat. It wasn't really new or inventive at all. She watched as Jack waved off his crowd of admirers and up the stairs to his house. Sally knew he wouldn't go there, not now, not with that look on his face, not with that walk. He seemed…almost depressed. She wondered why, it wasn't as though it had been an awful night or performance. It had been good. Not fantastic, but no reason to get so….melancholy. She followed him.

She hadn't gotten far when Finklestien caught up to her, furious. He grabbed her arm to pull her home, but she used one of her old tricks to escape. She lost her arm in the process, but Finklestien fell out of his chair. He wouldn't be able to catch up. She took a shortcut to the graveyard, arriving only moments after Jack. She had the oddest sense of déjà vu as she slipped from gravestone to gravestone, keeping hidden. Jack had a dog following him now. He seemed to be talking to the dog, or trying to give himself a pep talk or something.

He'd start by being positive, gloating about his fame in the human world, the unfortunate man in Kentucky who had named him "Mr. Unlucky" his ability to perform Shakespeare—that was new, Sally mused. He seems a bit more well read than before. Maybe the new witches she had seen in the village had something to do with it. She seemed to recall Shakespeare wrote about witches a lot-But Jack would always fall back to sadness after his moments of self-praise. He spoke about missing something, about an empty place inside, a longing. She couldn't hold back a gasp when he muttered something about wishing he could give up the title of Pumpkin King. When he wandered off into the woods, she let him go. "oh Jack. What happened to you?"

br/

He had seen her, of course he had. How could he miss that hair? He had lost her in the crowd, but he was certain it was her. Memory rushed him like a freight train. The pain of that night was less intense as it had been that night, it had been years after all, but it was still worse than it had been that morning. That flash of red hair….A moment later he was sure he had imagined it, but suddenly, all those times he had felt like he lost something made a little bit more sense. But he had promised Finklestien…and he had promised himself. He had to stay away from Sally Ragdoll. Oogie was still around. Lock, Shock, and Barrel still lived in their treehouse just outside of town, but they were getting harder to reach. Jack figured that meant Oogie had rebuilt himself—they answered to Oogie first, and Jack second, though they were still sufficiently afraid of Jack that he thought they might hesitate to break his orders. They didn't booby trap him anymore. They didn't dare. In Jack's mind, that was a plus.

Sally….no, she was safer staying away from him. He wished he could explain it to her. If she was back, she would certainly try and find him. He was so focused on his thoughts, he almost didn't realize where he was, coming to a stop only when he stumbled into a clearing of very strange trees. Trees with little pictures on them, pictures that were not pictures at all, but doors. One in particular seemed to call to him, a pine tree, with full leaves and little decorations…


End file.
